Turning the Tides
by Anju The Elemental Dreamer
Summary: As of 9/4/18, this story is up on my new account, IntangibleRealities. The link is on my profile. Story is under the same name.
1. Table of Contents

**Title:** Turning the Tides

 **Rating:** T to M

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 **Full-Length Summary** : A thousand years ago, the Air Nomads were executed in a one night massacre, that took place around the world. It was believed that the Avatar was killed during the strategic attack with the rest of the Air Nomads. However, the young airbending maiden had ran away years prior to the attack, and trapped herself in an iceberg, in suspended animation. Her name is Avatar Anju.

998 years have passed sense the war begin, two siblings (Suluk and Kamarua), from the Southern Water Tribe found themselves trapped in the glaciers of their homeland. There, they discovered Anju imprisoned in her iceberg, which they then free her from. Anju is then introduced into a world she could never imagined. A world of war, where the Fire Nation is the blame. A world without harmony. It's her destiny to become a fully realized Avatar and return balance to the world by defeating the Fire Nation. Anju sets out to master the three unlearned elements, where she makes friends and enemies along the way.

However, the journey is not an easy one as she and her friends are pursued by Fire Prince Zuko. A banished Fire Nation prince and son of Fire Lord Ozai, who is obsessed with capturing Anju to restore his rightful place on the throne. Prince Zuko has trained for the day he would captured the Avatar, only to discover she was nothing like he was expecting. No older than his own sister, and very much naïve to the world, but he quickly learns that Anju has skeletons of her own. But she's not the only one with secrets as Zuko's past comes back to haunt him as the young maiden slowly awakens his demons, and for this, he cannot bring himself to harm her.

During her journey to master the elements, Anju discovered that Sozin's comet will return within three summers, and, if that was to happen, the Fire Nation will destroy the world. She must master all four elements, and end the War before it can happen, a feat that has never been done before.

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 **Disclaimer:** I own absolutely nothing Avatar or Avatar related. All rights go to their rightful owner(s).

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Yes. Yes. If you did in fact read the full summary you will realize some huge changes between the canon story and mine.

 **First thing first:** You probably noticed the line ' **Sozin's Comet Will Return within THREE summers'**. This is probably the biggest twist of them all. Everything taking place currently in the story happens three winters before Sozin's Comet returns (three summers). I originally was just going to keep the same timeline but I plan on tossing in a whole lot of drama once the gang gets to Ba Sing Se, which will even surprise you guys because I have yet to see this done on any genderbent Avatar stories. The comet only comes ever 1000 years.

 **Second** : Anju's age. I aged her up a few years, only two, which would make her the same age as Azula and Kamarua (14 going on to 15). Again, I was going to keep her the originally age of her male-counterpart but I had a tough time seeing through the eyes of a 12/13-year-old. Besides, I'm not comfortable seeing a 12-year-old with a 14/15/16-year-old. I mean, I am okay with age gabs, only when both partners are older than 18. Because of this, everything took place earlier, such as Avatar Roku's death

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 **TABLE OF CONTEXT**

Chapter 1: Table of Context

Chapter 2: Down with the Avatar

Chapter 3: The Girl in The Iceberg

Chapter 4: Author Note; I'm back

Chapter 5: Sleeping Beauty Awakens

Chapter 6: The Demons of Past, Present and Future

Chapter 7: The Avatar's Return

Chapter 8: Author Note

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 **When I first wrote this story, I didn't have the contents up. I finished the contents on 2/16/2017. Yeah, I know it's a bit late but better late than never.**

 **This is not the official contents for the story, just the lay out. I'll end up making a few alterations to the contents depending on the lengths of the chapters and a few extras, but otherwise, this is how its going to play out. Roughly. Hope you like the changes.**

 **So, what do you think is the major plot twist?**


	2. Down With The Avatar

**Rating:** T to M (depending on how you look at it)

 **Disclaimer:** I own absolutely nothing Avatar or Avatar related. All rights go to their rightful owner(s).

 **BG:** Before Air Nomad's destruction.

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 **Chapter One**

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 **3 BG**

The booming sound of thunder and the sky being lit by streaks of light was all that Anju could hear and see. She was soaked to the core: her layers of robes, hair and beneath her skin were drenched. _Just a few more hours_ , she thought. She and Appa flew hesitantly above the ocean. She squinted through the rain. They need to get to shelter, they couldn't last much longer like this. Appa was struggling against the wind himself.

The waves were reaching up the bottom of his paws. Anju stirred the beast higher up.

That was when it had happened.

A strike of lighting flew not so far from the two. She screamed, her vision blurred, Anju gripped the reigns tighter. Appa tried to avoided the strike and in the end, flipped both him and his rider into the waters below.

Anju's head bobbled above the water as she gasped for air, "Appa!" He gave a throaty growl before a wave slammed onto them from above forcing them further under. She continued to keep a grip on the reigns, even as they continued to sink below the raging waves.

Her lungs burned.

 _I can't breathe._

She gasped. She couldn't contain the urged to breathe as her lungs demanded it. She begins inhaling the water.

Appa continued to sink pulling her along. Her grip became loss and she felt everything becoming colder. Her last ringer brushed against the reigns that connected her and her companion as she drifted away from him.

 _Appa…_

Her mind went blank. Her vision filled with a blinding light. Her blood begins boiling, racing through her veins. It became easier to breathe.

Everything around her became cold… colder and colder and colder…

 _It's so cold…_

Then nothing.

She was sentence to dream for a thousand years.

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 _Water: Benevolent_

 _Earth: Strong_

 _Fire: Fierce_

 _Air: Harmonious_

 _Power divided into four, the world, all under heaven, is guided by one. The divine medium who has descended upon the world (The Avatar)._

 _As a little boy, my grandmother used to tuck me and my sister to bed and tell us stories about from the old days, a time of peace over a thousand years ago, when all was right within the world. Prosperity and peace filled our days when the Avatar: master of all four elements kept balance between the four nations. Water Tribe. Earth Kingdom. Fire Nation. Air Nomads. The four nations lived amongst each other in harmony. But then, everything changed,when the Fire Nation attacked._

 _The Avatar was the only one who could communicate with the Spirit world, receiving advice from our ancestors. With the Spirit's guidance, the Avatar kept balance in the world, and then, when the world needed the Avatar the most… He vanished._

 _A thousand years have passed sense then, and the Fire Nation is nearing victorying in the war. My sister, Sukul and I, live in the Southern Water tribe. Four years ago, our father and the men of my tribe journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to help fight in the war, leaving me and my brother to look after our tribe._

 _Many years before, my mother was killed by the Fire Nation. She used to tell me to never give up hope for peace, that the Avatar will return one day. Many people believed that the Avatar was never reborn into the Air Nomads and that the cycle was broke, but my mother never lost hope. She believed, when the Spirits believe it was time, the Avatar will return to save the world. Did I believe her?_

 _For some time, I didn't. It seemed hopeless._

 _That was until thousand years into the war, me and my sister discovered the new Avatar, an airbender maiden named Anju. And although her airbending skills are brilliant, Anju has a lot to learn about the new world before she's ready to save anyone. The only problem is that the Fire Nation and Prince Zuko will do anything to capture Anju before she can master all four elements, to fulfill her destiny._

 _But, as my mother before me, I believe that Anju can save the world._

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 **So, that we are not confused on who is who:**

 **Katara: Boy: Kamarua**

 **Sokka: Girl: Sukul**

 **Aang: Girl: Anju**

 **Zuko: Boy: Zuko**

 **Iroh: Boy: Iroh**

 **Yes, I know this is a genderbend story, however not everyone is the opposite gender- like Zuko and Toph- for various of reasons.**

 **Words: 688**

 **Edited: 2/11/17**

 **Edited: 2/12/17 (forgotten detail)**

 **Question:** Who would you guys like to see more in this story of who we didn't see much of in the series? Let me know down below!


	3. The Girl in the Iceberg

**Disclaimer:** I own absolutely nothing Avatar or Avatar related. All rights go to their rightful owner(s).

 **A shout-out to my reviewers! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to send quick thoughts and likes. Thank you so much!**

 **eXperiment09:** I'll try to keep the characters the same as much as possible. Sukul's jokes might be not be there in many cases because I have no sense of humor what's so ever ( _Sorry Sokka fans_!). But they'll be similar enough. Anju's past is slightly different from Aang's because of one of the plot twists in the story, that and because of her age, she acts a lot more mature and less childish but is just as naïve. Kamarua ( _Katara)_ is still emotional-linked, but he's not as emotional as his counterpart is in the show and a slightly more like Sokka in the sense of Women-rights and being a warrior because of the water tribes' cultures ( _not much so people hold your horses!)._ Zuko is… well, Zuko. And for other characters like Toph or Jet, that's debatable what's going to change for them…

 **Thunderbun01:** Hope I live up to those expectations!

 **WeirdGirl369:** Don't worry, I am going to have something between them to spice things up. If they get together is all up to the voters, I like both Fem!aangxMale!Katara and Fem!AangxZuko.

 _ **AG is everything after the destruction of the Air Nomads.**_

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 **Chapter Two**

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 **998 AG (November)**

Deep within the Southern pole of the world, two teenagers drifted in a low-wall canoe held together by fishing line and rope, the canoe was threating to collapse under the two boys' weight. They drifted down a what they would call a river, but in reality, it was a stream connected to the ocean as they lived on ice. Around them where walls and towering hills of ice engulfing them into the stream. One of the two was draped across the side of the canoe with the tip of his glove gliding over the still water, creating ripples behind him.

The two siblings were identical. Matching dark skin, clear blue eyes and dark hair. However, they were different in their own way.

The oldest, Sukul was the tallest of the two, her shades darker than her brother's from the physical labor she performs most days. Her hair was oddly chopped short, considering in their culture most women and men grew theirs out, and was pulled back into a spiked tail on the base of her necked called a Warrior Wolf Tail which her village frowned on, sense it was only welcomed for men but her father adored it. She was built for speed with her slender frame, she had several weapons strapped down on her back and shoulders with a hunting knife sheathed in her belt. Her eyes were shades darker than her brothers and held a protective glint to them.

Sukul studied in the art of becoming a Wolf Warrior of the tribe, which means once the current chief steps down, she could become the next chief of the Southern Water Tribe, a task she does not take lightly. She was discouraged by the men and women of her tribe for years, as the custom was only welcomed, permitted to and encourage for men to become a Wolf Warrior as a chief can only be of male genes. It didn't really bother her, she never truly acted like the other teenage girls of her tribe, spending most of her days hunting and traveling to deserted villages alone. But she was determined to become a Wolf Warrior to please her father who had always told her to be herself and to her mother who believed anything was possible. It wasn't like anyone could really say anything, the only male teenager in the entire village was her own brother, who was too much of a coward to piece a fish.

Her brother, Kamarua was just tall enough to reach Sukul's eye level as he had yet to hit his growth spurt. Unlike his sister, he allowed his hair to grow out passed his back and enslaved the strains into a braid most days. While Sukul was the most athletic of the two, being the hunter of the tribe, he had more muscle on him from all the tiems he had to haul the latest kill, be it mammal or marine, around the tribe and clean them. His eyes, the brightest shade of blue possible, held a startling amount of intelligence, experiences and kindness for someone was his age.

He, as you probably figured, was not training to become a Wolf Warrior. No, Kamarua was what was called a Waterbender, a person who could manipulate the element of water- be it liquid, gas or solid. He was born as a waterbender, a rare trait in their culture and sense day one, he was the only bender in the entire Southern pole of the world. He had no master to teach him the basics and everything the poor fourteen-year-old knew he taught himself from observing the currents of the sea. Years and almost a decade it took him before he would do anything damaging with his abilities. His life was that of only himself and his family as he had spent most days training. He never found a need for anything else and as time goes on, he knew he should have learned to use a weapon.

Both brother and sister wore traditional chokers of their tribe. Sukul wore a single string of whale-teeths that her father caught himself and gave to her, the bones strained against her throat. Kamarua wore a black velvet necklace attached to a circler blue-colored bone with a symmetrical wave pattern carved into it. The necklace had once belonged to their late-mother, the pendent was precious to both sibling. It had originally belonged to their grandmother who then gave it to her daughter who gave it to Sukul who, after a much-heated argument, gave it to Kamarua. There were not many things the two bonded over, but the choker was one of few as they both had suffer the sudden horror of the event that took place ten years ago, an event that only left them with their father.

Their father had left them- the tribe- three years ago, to fight in the war, to fight the people who had murdered their mother. The two, after the Chief's sudden leave, had taken the task as 'leaders' by doing the best they could by keeping the tribe feed and safe as the war became more chaotic. Food was becoming scarce, clothes and shelter becoming less and less common to come across. Other tribes and villages, even the mother city, of the south pole have abandoned their mainland and fled to their sister city for safety and work. The siblings knew I they stayed much longer, they took would be forced to leave.

The two use their abilities and talents to keep food on the table and make sure everyone was happy and pleased. They did everything in their power to please their grandmother who worried about them, about how their childhood was stripped away from them too soon. She had no childhood, it was the reason why she came to their village in the first place, to be free and to not be restricted of her rights. The brother and sister were her heart and world, especially after the passing of her beloved daughter.

Both Sukul and Kamarua knew that the entire village relied solely on them, to hunt and defend the walls of Ilug. To Sukul, the responsibility was an honor that anyone should thrive to have. She would defend the tribe to her dying breath as her father would. Kamarua on the other hand, wanted more in life then to defend and die. He wanted to live life to its fullest while he can, to travel to six seas and journey across deserts and mountains and adventured into the unknown. But he knew the likelihood of his dream becoming a reality was slim to none with the war raging around him. He kept that dream to himself, locked away deep inside him. He knew where he was needed.

Sukul, the self-reclaimed weapon-master, peered into the water.

It was clearly a bad day or fishing, her brother had told her so when he had been dragged along on the hunting trip that morning. Sukul would never admit it but her brother was right… Once again. They had been out fishing sense dawn and it had be midday by now, and they've only caught eleven fish to last an entire week! The route they had taken wasn't their normal one, so she had been expecting to see at least thirty fish, probably fifty at the most, but out of the four groups of fish they came across, that number was decreasing rapidly. Where have all the fish gone? She had a feeling the women of the tribe might have to help out in the fishing to gather enough to last the week. Sukul might not be the biggest feminism in the world, but those women knew how to fish.

She watched and observed the route the swarm of fishes took below the canoe. With her spear at hand, she was ready to pierce any marine animal that came close enough. She regretted not having Kamarua make a new net, it would have made their trip a whole lot easier. Usually, they would have a small net drifting behind them as they traveled downstream, nonetheless, after a mishap involving a SeaLion, the net was currently MIA. She grimaced remembering the lecture they got from their grandmother.

Kamarua tucked his fist underneath his chin, yawning he stared with tried eyes. He wasn't a person to get easily bored but he sure was getting close to it the longer they fished. "I told you, it was a bad day to come out here." His sister hushed him. Rolling his eyes, Kamarua stirred the canoe with what little bending he knew.

At least I don't wave around a two century-old spear, he thought.

He leaned back and looked at the sky and peruse location of the sun, 'W've been hunting for five hours. We should start heading back," he said of a matter-of-fact. Once again, his sister hushed him.

"Mhm," his sister looked over her shoulder and gave him a lopsided grin. She ran her glove cladded hand across the blade of the spear, "It's not getting away this time," She leaned over the canoe with the spear raise. Th silvery tail of the arctic fish splashed across the surface of the water. Her eyes darken in hunger, "again." She ignored Kamarua's snort, "Watch and learn, Little Kama. This is how a real man hunts."

"If so," Kamarua replied, "why are you showing me?"

Use to his comments, Sukul pouted and returned to the task at hand.

The youngest leaned back ready for his sister to make a fool of herself and rested against the trim of the canoe. The canoe wasn't large by any means, it only stood five inches off the water. He sniffed. The stream, the ocean, had no real scent to him, the coolness of the air numbed his sense of smell. But he knew, if he was anywhere else in the world, he would have smelled the sweet saltiness of the water, of which would burn his nose and relax his muscles. Or, at least, that's how the ocean was described in one of his books.

He wanted to smell the real thing.

Blow him, inches away, a colorful group of fish shot pass. They appeared to be moving from the side Sukul was leaning over. Gathered together, they made an easy target. Compared to the small amount of marine life they've managed to snap, these fish were tiny, but better than nothing.

Kamarua glanced towards his sister who was no longer paying attention to him and was solely focused on her side of the boat. Cautious of making a sound, he slowly took off his glove and rested his palm on the water. The pads of his fingers skimmed the top. He stared, fixated on the water, at the fish. He then worked his fingers inwards and out, flexing the stiff muscles. He had been perfecting this bending move for months and prayed to the spirits that his hard work has finally paid off. He continued his hands in the same fashion, and moments later, a globe of water burst from the water containing one of the silver-scaled fish.

He grinned, "Sukul!" He exclaimed softly, "Look!"

She shushed him, "You gonna scare them off."

Kamarua frisked his eyes to his sister, "But I caught a damn fish!" he complained. He struggled to control the globe of water as the fish tried to find a way out.

Sukul gave throaty snort, "Sure you did," she said it with such mocked-joy Kamarua was tempted to drop the fish on her.

"Why you-" he never got to finish his curse as he had fall backwards, rocking the canoe and allowing water to seep in, he accidently sent the globe of water over towards Sukul. His sister cursed him for soaking her shoes as she reared her spear back and pierced the floating orb. Unfortunately, Sukul had been sitting below the orb and became drenched in chilling water from the ocean. The fish landed helplessly in her lap.

She shrieked and shivered from the water before she unsheathes her hunting knife and drove the blade into the head of the fish before it went overboard. The fish laid still in Sukul's lap. She turned around, her eyes wild and Kamarua thought he would be her next victim.

"Sorry?" he voiced. Sukul twisted the knife and tossed the bloody fish at her brother, "Awaha! Gross! Sukul! So not cool!"

"Not cool my ass! You did that in propose! I know you did! You always do!"

"I do not!"

"Oh really," Sukul said sarcastically, "Then answer me this: how come whenever I'm around you, I get _soaked_ in _magic_ water? Huh? I swear! You're nothing but bad luck." She stripped her gloves off, grabbed a small towel on board, and begin tabbing herself to get the water off her coat being is seeps through.

"It's not magic. It's waterbending, and it's been-"

"Yeah. Yeah," Kamarua dodged the dripping cloth that his sister threw. Sukul squeezed the water from her hair, she rolled her eyes. Shes heard this history-lecture so often she knew it by heart, "I know. It's an ancient art unique to our culture as water tribesman- you know what I hear? Blah, blah, blah, blah. If I had been given strange, weird, creepy powers, I would keep my weirdness at home and pretend I have no clue."

"Oh-oh really?" huffed Kamarua, "I'm the weird one? You don't see me running around swinging a two-century-old spear I found in a deserted village pretending to be someone that I'm not, only to end up making a fool of myself with said two-century-old spear and go to pout and admire my own reflection, Miss. NoneWeird."

Sukul gave a him a stare. She was not glaring nor was she sneering at him, she simply stared. Kamarua had to conceal his smirk. He won that duel.

Their quarrel was short-lived when their canoe sudden bumped into something. The small boat rock back and forth forcefully, nearly tipping over if the siblings hadn't regained equilibrium. They reached for any weapon neared them and peered into the ocean. The water was cleared, they were a goof ten feet from an iceberg.

Sukul knew they weren't in a current, the boat was still vertical to the ice. She screened the water, wondering if the weather had shifted. The South Pole was known to have a bipolar weathering pattern, a clear sky day can easily turn into a night of blizzards. She gripped her spear.

Their boat launched forward once again sending them crashing onto the bottom of the canoe. They stumbled to get their footing when a sound was heard, a sniffing much similar to the arctic BatCat. Kamarua and Sukul shared a look, they had a feeling they knew what sound that was and by the paleness of their faces, it was not good news. There were two possibilities: either a Tigershark caught the scent of the fish or worst, a Delphine Piranha picked up _their_ scent.

They prayed they were wrong.

The water was crystal-clear as artic water should be, yet they couldn't make anything out from below. Strange as they could still hear the sniffing of an animal. If it was in fact a TigerShark or Dolphin Piranha, they were screwed miserably, not even the best Wolf Warriors could defend themselves form those predators that feasted on large fish and… humans. Even with the tools his brother carried, Kamarua knew they wouldn't hold out for very long.

He never came across a Dolphin Piranha but he heard stories of the anguishing way they tear apart their prey before feasting. He's been attacked by a TigerShark before, when he was younger. Luckily he was still on shore when it happened and his father had pierced the marine animal with his spear the moment it broke the ice. But he had a feeling luck wasn't going to be on his side this time.

The left side of the canoe was hit and the siblings fall again. They heard the water shifting and something rising from it, their hearts stopped beating and they continued to stare at the bottom of the canoe.

A purr was heard.

With a start, the two jumped with their weapons drawn only to come face-to-face with one of the gentlest artic animal known to men. "A CatNessie." The long-necked cat-like creature sniff around the canoe, batting its nose against the teenagers' legs. It gave a yowl when it found the bucket of fish strapped down in the middle of the boat between Sukul and Kamarua.

"Hey!" Sukul yelled when the marine animal tried tearing the lid off, "Cut it out! That's our!" The creature hissed and bared its fangs. The CatNessie brought one of its fins out of the water and smack the girl across the head. "Get lost," Sukul told it.

The beast hissed and a purr was quickly followed when Kamarua tossed the bloody-fish towards it. Its neck snapped sides ways as its jaws locked around its prey, it gulped the fish down whole.

"Kamarua! That's our dinner!"

"She's not going to leave unless we give her something. She's a CatNessie. They're stubborn- like you." He tossed another fish into the air and watch in glee as the beast tossed itself towards the flying fish. "Besides, she's not hurting nobody. Are you girl?" He cooed at the beast who, in return, gave a happy yelp, "See?" Sukul grumbled.

Just then, the CatNessie's ears perked and narrowed its eyes. She disappeared below the waves.

Their canoe shuddered, "Not hurting nobody huh?" Before Kamarua could degrade her, their canoe was hit by a much stronger force. Kamarua laughed when his sister snapped her jaw against the trim of the boat, "Damn that hurt." They were hit again. A wave roared in Kamarua's ears and he knew something was very wrong in the pit of his stomach. He hushed his sister when she started complaining about Kamarua's new friend. He could hear something, something that shouldn't be happening so easily into the winter-season.

"I'm just saying- it's that CatNessie messing around. Probably wants-"

"Sukul. Shut. Up," Kamarua hissed, "Don't you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

At was an ear-crunching sound that sent chills down their spins. Sukul knew what it was once hearing the crunch, but she went into denial, it was too early in the season she kept telling herself. She looked at her brother and knew they shared the same peachy face. The rounded the corner of an iceberg and entered an ice-packed area. Ice sheets collided against each other shattering like artic hens' eggs.

Eyes wide, searching for an opening franticly, Kamarua barked when two ice sheets closed in on them, "Watch out! Go left! Go left!"

Sukul tried to obey her brother's demand and tried to row them to safety but they were quickly pulled in by the current towards the colliding ice. She brought the oar down onto the ice, sending them back and forth from collision. Cooled water splashed over them as they dropped and dropped between their near-death accident. They managed to keep the pace for minutes before their muscles became weak and ached and screamed against them. The ice only became worst and worst as the water tribe siblings were forced down stream. Sukul briskly glanced around them, they wouldn't be able to keep up with the pressure much more.

Kamarua yelped when his sister took him by the arm and forced both of them to leap from the canoe onto a passing ice sheet. They watched as their canoe was crushed between three sheets of ice and became nothing but splinters floating in the water. Panting to themselves, Sukul couldn't help but cruse when she watched their food basket sink into the sea.

"Guess that particular basket is finished."

"And so is our boat."

As if a nature spirit completed a task, the water around them stilled. The rapids that had once been present not even a moment before froze and the ice moved in such a way, forcing them apart, it was if they were controlled.

The two siblings crouched down on the safety of the ice. They sat in silence, allowing themselves to be rocked by gentle ways, gathering themselves. Finally, Sukul glanced around once her heart stopped pounding in his ears and became filled with horrid dread. The ice around them as drifted further from them and worst of all, they were now at the mercy of the currents.

 _Great,_ she thought in a panic. _Just great. We're alone. No boat. And a good twenty miles from the village. No one is going to come searching for us. We don't usually get back until night fall…_

A voice broke her train of thought, "You call that left?" There was a bitterness stitched into her brother's tone.

She snapped, "If you didn't like my stirring, why didn't you just waterbended us out!" She clawed at her face, wiped the sweat from her brow and tried to steady her breathing. "We just lost all of this week's food _and_ the spear! How am I supposed to explain that to Gran-Gran? Much less- what are we going to eat this week? And where are we going to find a new boat?"

Kamarua didn't answer her.

* * *

They said nothing for the next half-hour as they floated down the stream in a awkward silence. Neither knew what to say without starting a fight, which they didn't need on top of everything else. Soon, they neared the mainland with towering sides. They shared a look of agreement, they needed to reach that strip of ice. If they missed it, they would soon drift out into the ocean. And what could they do then?

Sukul whipped out her boomerang and a sword-like-bat from her side and begin tying them together with string she ripped from her coat (Gran Gran was _soooooooo_ going to kill her). Kamarua tried using his waterbending to shift them to the main land as much as possible.

They knew they were nearing the ocean, yet had no clue of their location. Towering all around them on all sides were icy cliffs creating a bowl. Sukul noticed a small craven towards the other end of the strip of ice, she ignored the wrenching gut-instinct. The small opening seemed to be calling towards her. "We can keep in there until we get warm enough," she pointed out to Kamarua, "We'll find a way back afterwards and tell Gran-Gran how you lost the food." She undid the string around her weapons and begin placing them back into their correct slots.

Kamarua gawked, "Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." He grabbed Sukul's arm, "Are you-Are you seriously blaming me?"

"Well," Sukul said jerking her skinny arm away, "You are the only one here. And you have your freaky powers to, leave it to a kid to screw everything up."

"So, this is my fault now?" the 'kid' exclaimed as Sukul walked away from him. Sukul didn't make a remark, "Ahahhahhaahaaaaa! You-you are the most immature- nit brained- simple minded…" He stumbled with his words, choking on his own tongue. For years, he had put up with his sister degrading him and allowed her to step over him all she wanted simply because she was his older sister, but he wasn't going to stand by and allowed Sukul to accuse him of a natural phonomime that he had no control over. He knew his sister just wanted to get a rise out of him, a small sick twist of enjoyment after the day they had, but how was Kamarua going to stop himself form reacting to such distaste.

He screamed and begin swinging his arms around him, "You. Flying. Hog. Monkey!" The water behind him rippled, waves roused and hurled down onto a massive iceberg behind him. With each word he cursed, with each swing he took, a loud splitting crack broke through the ice. Hearing the echoing boom, Sukul spun on her heels and her expression morphed into one of horror. Facing pale dramticlly, she begins backing away.

Kamarua shrieked, "I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever sense mom died, ever sense dad left: I've been stuck in that _spiritforsaken_ village during all the dirty work while you're off solider in who knows where!" He jabbed Sukul in the chest and grimaced. A long, ragged crack creeped across the ice and chunks dropped and crushed into the water below, yet Kamarua didn't hear any of it. He continued with his terror-tantrum.

Sukul pushed Kamarua from her and begin gesturing behind her frantically, "Kamarua! Stop! Now!" Her eyes burned and she knew their argument has gone too far. But Kamarua, with all his pit-up anger, didn't acknowledged the fear.

"Don't Kamarua me! Why is it? Because I don't know how to use a stupid weapon? It's that it!? It's not my fault dad left before I was twelve! You're not the only one who has a shit tone of responsibilities! You're not even supposed to have a weapon! Or being a Wolf Warrior! I'VE BEEN STUCK-IN THE TRIBE- DOING NOTHING BUT CHORES FOR YEARS! I HAVE CLEANED AND GUTTED ALL THE FOOD WE HAVE BROUGHT BACK! I BABYSIT! I HUNT! I TEND THE WOUNDED! I EVEN HAD TO BECOME A MIDWIFE BECAUSE ALL THE GIRLS WERE TO YOUNG AND YOU'RE TOO STUPID TO HELP IN CHILDBIRTH! I EVEN WASH ALL THE CLOTHES! Have you ever smelled those kids' clothes- much less your own!? Let me tell you," his eyes were dark and a glint danced in them "NOT PLEASANT!"

Of chunk of ice fall into the ocean. Sukul flinched back, "Kamarua! Calm down!"

"NO! I'M DONE! I'M DONE HELPING YOU-OR-OR ANYONE! FROM NOW ON, YOU'RE ON OUR OWN!" Kamarua exploded. His clutched fists swung back in one last final blow. In the aftermath, a massive crease spread from the bottom to the top of the iceberg and the ice split open entirely. The two separated sheets of ice fall in opposite directions, one to the side and the other falling directly at them.

"Move!" Sukul grabbed Kamarua, the boy gone completely shock at seeing what he had unconsciously done, and they rushed away from the falling ice and the raising waves. They sprinted towards the cavern. She knew that the waves wouldn't be able to get in with how fast the chunks of ice where falling, either they get smashed or they drown. She knew which was less painfully.

Or they could hide in the cavern.

The ice below their feet begin to groan, splits and cracks spread across sheet under the pressure as the iceberg came down. Just before either sibling would become a pancake, they launched themselves into the safety of the cavern. The light quickly vanished and Sukul and Kamarua were left in complete blackness.

* * *

Sukul glanced, her eyes taking in the darkness of where she knew the opening had once been. Hearing the heavy breathing on her neck she turned around and started at her brother who she could not see, "Okay, Kama. You've gone from weird to freakish in only a minute." She wiped her eyes mentally scowling herself for her weakness.

Kamarua whirled around and sent his braid whipping Sukul across the chest, "You mean I cause that!"

"Congratulations, bro," Sukul searched for her brother in the dark, "Kama?" The pattering sound of footsteps moved further away from her. She heard someone stumbling around, "Wait! Stop moving! We can't see anything! Kamarua?" She scurried after him, held her hands out in front of her and begin tripping over herself in the dark. Below her the floor crunched and she froze. The footsteps in front of her stopped and she knew Kamarua heard it to. Sukul shifted her weight. There was another crunch.

Thin ice.

"Kamarua!" She gasped, "Don't. Move."

"Sukul, it's-"

"Will you shut up!" Kamarua fall silent, "Okay," Sukul looked at the ground, she couldn't even tell how bad the thin ice was, much less her own hands. She recalled going ice fishing with her father during a freeze before he left, remembering his warnings about the danger of thin ice. "We need to retrace our steps. Slowly- very slowly."

"Sukul. I'm tell you, I don't think its-"

"Kamarua," Sukul hissed, she sounded oddly like her father, "We can't even see the floor so we don't know how bad it really is. For all we know, below us is a tunnel of water, which means- we'll drown. Maybe there isn't even water, but a hollowed hole… We'll fall to our deaths. Do you know what happens when you fall hundreds of feet?" She amazed herself when she lectured him without a weaver in her voice.

"I know," she realized her brother's voice was shaky, "I know what you mean, but Sukul, this isn't ice."

She heard him shift, "Kamarua! Stop!"

There was a crunch and her toes curled. Something rough was thrashed against her chest. She grimaced, "It's not ice," Kamarua repeated.

Sukul took the foreign objected and felt a strange shape and texture against her hands. It was wooden, possibly clay. Twisting it in her hands, she realized, after brushing her fingers against writing, that the object was a sheath of a sword or knife with the blade missing. "What…" She bends down and felt for what she had stepped on. It felt like a carved wooden doll with stiff fabric. "I- I don't understand."

"It's probably like the village where you found your spear from. One of the lost tribes from before the war," said Kamarua. He was told stories form his father, from the thriving nation the South Pole had been before the war took its toll on them. The small continent of ice had once had hundreds of tribes and sister cities and now, only three reminded.

Sukul glared at the doll in her hand. How could anyone do something like this? She tried imagining the child who owned the doll. She tried not imagining a small girl, roughly her age during her first raid, looking for her parents in the heat of battle, cradling the last safe-keeping she owned. Tears prickled the corners of her eyes, she hesitantly wiped them away.

"…" Kamarua took her hand and dragged her behind him, "Come on."

They crushed foreign objects beneath their feet and stumbled around on slippery ice of the cave. The ceiling hung low leaving the two water tribe members to hunch over in their walk. Droplets of water fall from the spikes of the ceilings and fall onto their heads.

"There had to be another way out. It's too long," Sukul said after stopping for the fifth time to take a break, "to only have on entrance. There has been an opening somewhere or else this cavern would have collapsed by now." Kamarua agreed.

The two siblings kept a tight grip on each other.

Kamarua halted, "Do you see that?"

"See what?"

"It's… I think it's light," he gasped, "It is!"

"Where? I don't see anything."

He dropped his sister's hand and hurried over towards the light, a slimmer of blue of which his brother was unable to see. As they rushed towards the gleam, the air begin changing, becoming warmer and thinner. Even lighter. Soon, even Sukul could see the light and was amazed where it was coming from. They came to a dead end, the wall of ice in front of them was glowing an incandescent blue. The bottom of the ice was surrounded by a pool of water.

Sukul brought her spear down and the blade reflected off the surface of the ice. She shook her head. They had been so close, she honestly thought they would make it out. "The ice is too thick. It'll take us days to break it- maybe months. And we don't have kind of time."

"Maybe not," Kamarua kneeled and eyed the linger waves of water, "Maybe we have to go under it. The waters moving, so it has to lend to somewhere outside."

"No. Oh no! By the spirits and back! There is no way we're swimming underneath it, we don't even know how far it goes! We could be down there for hours."

"What choice do we have?" Her brother snapped. Sukul pouted and twisted, turning her back to him, "Either we stay here and slowly rot and freeze to death or we could at least try to get out. You can stay, I'm not going to force you but I'm going and you're not stopping me." He stripped off his gloves which were quickly followed by his boots. He stared at the water and after hesitating for a moment, he removed his coat leaving him in his under-armor.

"You're nuts. You're absolutely nuts."

"Better then rotting in here," he murmured. Taking a deep breath he stepped into the water. He tensed up ready for the chill that would slow his blood but he received a strange sensation instead. He glanced back, "It's warm."

"What?" Kamarua repeated himself and Sukul dipped her hand in tenderly and was surprised. The water was warm, not burning but the temperature was that of most drinking water. She heard a splash and looked up in time to see her brother's feet disappear under the ice wall, "Kamarua!"

* * *

She waited and waited and waited.

She knew, deep down, that if it was safe to travel, Kamarua would come back to tell her. He would rub it in her face that he was right. Again. Like always. But he didn't.

Seconds pass. Minutes pass.

Five minutes.

Six minutes.

Seven minutes.

She grinded her teeth and rubbed her eyes. Surly Kamarua aw sine, right? He had to be. She toyed with her boomerang.

Nine minutes.

Ten minutes.

Eleven minutes.

Thirteen minutes passed sense her brother went under leaving her to stare at the glowing ice. It was the longest thirteen minutes of her life. Sukul at some point had chunked her chosen-weapon at the ice in frustration, the blade now stuck out of the ice as it would have her enemy. Her eyes burned and her throat felt raw from when she had gave a horrific scream. Kamarua wasn't coming back, he was probably dead. There was no way out of the cavern for them to esca… Not them- her. Kamarua was already gone, even if he hadn't drown there was no saying that he was safe.

So many scenarios flashed through her head.

Kamarua hitting his head bleed to death.

Kamarua getting trapped in a shipping net that managed to make its way under the ice.

Kamarua running into an predator….

Kamarua….

Kamarua burst from the water, gasping for air. He hacked up his lungs and flicked his hair out of his face. Sukul jumped up. "You have to see this!"

Sukul released a breath she hadn't realize she was holding.

After a moment of screaming at Kamarua for scaring her (and denying that she was worry in the first place as her brother teased her), Kamarua told her they'll have to swim for a long time, but luckily there were air gaps between the ice and water in most places. The water, just like the first time Sukul touched it, was warm and soothing. The siblings came up for air for the ninth time, she noticed the light becoming much brighter. Finally, they came to a gaping hole and her breathe was taken away.

The hole went up like a valley with earth around it, Sukul only knew their names because of the books she and her brother possessed: layers of grass spread around and trees bloomed and flowers beamed and shrubs controlled the ice. It was like the green house they had, jut much larger. They climbed up onto the ice, using a vine the rest of the way when the ice became to slippery. What she saw next chilled her to the core. Apparently, Kamarua himself hadn't gotten this far if his impression was anything to go by.

The walls where caved in, like a backwards tent, gasping and embracing a huge sphere of crystalline ice. The ice was light in color, lighter than an Iceberg they had ever seen, it was almost transparent. It was a waterbenders dream to create such a perfect sphere of ice. it was as if a wave arose and was curled inwards and created a glass-like texture. The surface was glossy and glass-like, delicate looking, almost if it was paper thin. It was at most seventy feet high and sixty feet wide. And with a start, the siblings realize the glow was radiating off the ice.

"How did that get in here?" Sukul chocked.

Mesmerized, Kamarua stepped closer to the iceberg. He's never seen such a beautiful iceberg before. _It had to have taken the right kinda of weather to create this beauty,_ he thought. He stretched his hand out, itching to touch the glass-like surface but he was yanked back by his sister.

"I said it before," she said, "and I'll say it again. You're nuts! Why would you want to touch it? It looks ready to break!"

He huffed at her, "It may look like it but I doubt it. I mean- look at it. Have you ever seen an iceberg like this? It had to have taken years maybe even centuries for it to form like this. This is seriously a once in a lifetime experience."

But Sukul refused to let him ago, "Who cares. Maybe some stupid waterbender made it." Yet, as she said that, Sukul had a feeling she was wrong. Being in the south pole, home of waterbenders, she's came across villages, ice sheets, ships and icebergs created by their ancestors, and none of them ever looked like this.

Just then, ignoring his sister's lecture, Kamarua did a double take. He squinted, there was a dark area in the ice. A blob in the shape of a women in a meditation pose, above her was a darker unrecognizable shape of a beast. He stared fascinated at the form, "A girl." His sister stopped her ranting in confusion and gaze to where her brother was staring and gasped in surprise. She noticed the slim figure of a women in the ice.

In all her years within the south pole, Sukul has never seen anything like this. Sure she's seen fishermen pulled out frozen bodies of men and women and in same rare cases children, but never once has she seen a human encased in ice. "By the Spirits," she cursed.

The girl's eyes flew open in response of the curse, revealing a pair of glowing blue orbs. The glow radiating from the ice enhanced.

"She's alive!"

"No way," she mumbled. She jumped when her brother took her club from her and rushed towards the ice. "Wait! Kamarua, we don't even know what that thing it!"

"That thing is human!"

Sukul continued to argue and chase after him but Kamarua ignored her in favor of bring the club down onto the ice. He wacked the ice with as much force as he could master, creating only a spider web of cracks. Sukul jumped on him and begin trying to pull him back but for once his weight was on his side as his sister struggle to gain the upper hand. Tossing her off, he brought down the club once most time which send him slamming into his sister behind him. The ice shattered as if the iceberg has just been a hollowed chamber. The walls broke and the reminding piece of the iceberg dropped to the floor and sent shards of glass-like-particles everywhere.

A shaft of light shot from the ice into the heavens and vibrated the land. Howls and mewls responded the beam of light. The siblings groaned as they crawled to their feet and brushed the ice from their shoulders. Kamarua looked down when he felt something soaking into his shoes and gasped when he saw water seeping into the cavern from outside.

"Spirits!' he cursed, "Sukul, get up!' the water wasn't warm as the one they swim across, it a bitter cold. If they stayed in the water from the ocean any longer, they'll start showing signs of hypothermia.

Sukul stared at the shaft of light in terror. Anyone could see the light for hundreds of miles, anyone, including the Fire Nation Navy. She allowed her brother to grab her and force her onto the ice raft that had once been the glowing iceberg.

* * *

A few miles away traveling at top notch was an iron hulled battleship with a spiked prow cutting through the icy sea. The battleship with its Fire Nation flag fluttering in the wind was larger than the average boat with nine decks, steam and ash floated up and out of a tall smokestack sending sot into the air. The foredeck was much larger than the after deck.

On the ship's main deck was a boy, no older then sixteen. He stood at a startling height with pasty pale skin. His head was shaved save for a ponytail on the top of his head binding his long glossy black hair from brushing the base of his shoulders. His eyes, a warm hazel golden color, were beautiful to stare at, however, his left eye suffered from a terrible burned scarred that take up most of the left side of his face.

He paced back and forth with his back straight and head held high, it was easy to tell that he was of noble-blood.

Zuko. Fire Prince Zuko.

He scuffled at himself. He last that title years ago for simply for refusing to fight against his father: banished and disowned like a wolf by the man who should have loved him. He now traveled the world looking for the one person to return him as crowned prince. The Avatar.

 _How long would it take to find the Avatar?_ He had questioned when he had first discovered of his banishment. A question that only a child could ask.

He watched as a beam of light fade in the distance from the foredeck of his ship. The fading of the light was followed by a sudden gust of wind that had him narrowing his eyes in pleasure, "Finally," he breathed. He turned around eagerly to an elder man in his fifties, "Uncle, do you realize what this means?"

The older man was very overweight with a beer-belly and his once black-hair now gray bread and hair, which was pulled into the traditional top-knot of the Fire Nation with the royal symbol clipped between the white cloth binding his hair. He looked like an elder version of Prince Zuko with his pasty skin and golden eyes, it was no wonder why people mistake them for father and son. He wore layers of ropes of gold and red with splashes of white in-between.

General Iroh. Royal Fire Prince of the Fire Nation.

He sat hunched over a low table, sipping on a cup of tea and playing a game involving wooden rectangles. He gazed at the cards in front of him, "I won't get to finish my game," he guesses picking up a piece with a carved air current.

Zuko turned away, frustrated with his uncle's mockery, "It means- my search- it's about to come to an end."

Iroh sighed, "Don't sell me a FlutterBat." He had heard the same sentence at least three times a week.

Ignoring his comment, Zuko pointed to the still fading light, "That light came from an incredibly powerful source. It has to be him!"

"Or," Iroh stroked his beard, "it was the celestial lights. We've been down this road before, Prince Zuko. I don't want you to get too excited over nothing. Please. Sit," He guested to small pillow across from him, "Why don't you relax with a game of Probending and enjoy a cup of calming jasmine tea?"

The prince spun around furiously, "I don't need you Spirit damn tea! I need to capture the Avtar! Helmsman," she ordered a man waiting on a deck above, "head course for the light!" He turned back towards where the light had been.

 _This is it,_ he thought. _I know it is. This day is the beginning of a newer life for me._

Iroh sighs as the boy storms pass him down to his chambers. He placed the air current piece down and laid it over a fire carved piece, "By the Spirits watching over me," he said, "I hope that fortune was true."

* * *

The water tribe siblings managed to climb onto the remining iceberg. The water had rose high enough for their raft to drift out from the cavern and the light faded above them. However, there was still lingering swirls above. On the edge of the iceberg, a young girl stared down at them. Her eyes were still alit and her feet fluttering against the ice. She swayed from side to side as if waking up from a trance.

Sukul ripped her club from her brother's hand and fall into a defense stance her father taught her, "Stay back! Who are you?"

The girl, silhouette from the lowing sun, twisted towards them. She opened her mouth to say something but the glow faded from her eyes and she suddenly went limp. She falls forwards and collapsed on the ice and begin tumbling down the side. Sukul gasped and almost launched herself forwards to catch if her brother's reflex wasn't faster then hers. He managed to catch her before she could bash her head against the ice. Sukul raced over and hovered nervously over them. Kamarua stared down at the girl in concern, holding her against his chest, he pressed his fingers against the underside of her jaw. He felt her heart beat and sighed in relief, he settled her down on the ground and noticed a bruise along her neck.

 _She must have hit something when the ice shattered_ , he thought.

That was when Sukul made her entrance by poking the poor girl with the blunt end of her weapon. Batting the stick away, Kamarua exclaimed, "Cut it out! She's hurt!"

"Well you're the doctor. Do something."

He scoffed at her and turned his attention back to the mystery girl.

She was small and childlike, slender with no feminine assesses. She was pale and lightly freckled with brown dots, light-colored hair and her clothes were warm shades of browns, yellows and oranges. She couldn't be older then thirteen.

The stranger twitched and her eyes dotted beneath her eyelids before fluttering open. The siblings caught sight of an eye color they've never seen before.

Glittering silver orbs.

They were foggy with sleep and curiously as they stared fondly at the Sukul and Kamarua, "Um," she coughed, her voice scratchy, "D-Do you have any water?"

* * *

 **Appearances:**

 **Note: The characters change their clothes several times in the series. Anju's is the most complex.**

 **Anju:** Pale, freckled skin. Honey colored hair. Dark silver eyes. Several inches shorter then Kamarua, small frame, almost petite. Hair reaches her waist and is kept loss with a layer pulled back into a tail with a band around it, the front of her scalp is shaved to reveal her arrow and so is her neck. Her body is covered by arrow tattoos. Around her forehead is a very thin leather headband with a yellow gem in the middle right below the arrow. She doesn't wear 'shoes' but beaded sandals with slave anklets, the bottom of the sandals are thin leather. She also wears a necklace made out of wood with wooden beads and disk with air nation symbols with knots of leather tassels.

She wears several layers of clothes:

The first is a simple orange robe that reaches down to her ankles with yellow Air Nomadic symbols running down the sides.

The second is a brown robe that is more complex: the robe reaches down to her calf's but has a slit on the left and is gathered on the right side of her leg and is held down by a thick white cloth belt.

The third layer is a short orange robe almost like a kimono vest that is tucked underneath the belt and puffs out the bottom with a stiff raised collar and long sleeves that drapes over her hands and are very loss.

And the last layered is a yellow cloak that is symmetrical, the front is shorter reaching just pass her bust-area while the back reaches her knees.

 **Sukul:** the same. Hair slightly longer and has more volume.

 **Kamarua:** He doesn't have any hair loopies, the same length as Katara's. Taller and masculine. Coat similar to Katara's but shorter and styled more like Sokka's.

 **Zuko:** The same.

* * *

 **Remember to vote on the poll for the couples!**

 **Male!Suki x Fem!Haru**

 **Fem!Jet x Zuko**

 **Ty Lee x Fem!Haru**

 **Male!Mai x Ty Lee**

 **Male!Katara (Kamarua) x Fem!Haru**

 **Fem!Jet x Ty Lee**

 **Fem!Sokka (Sukul) x Ty Lee**

 **Male!Mai x Fem!Sokka (Sukul)**

 **Male!Mai x Zuko**

 **Zuko x Fem!Aang (Anju)**

 **Azula x Ty Lee**

 **Teo x Toph**

 **Male!Katara (Kamarua) x Fem!Aang (Anju)**

 **Male!Katara (Kamarua) x Fem!Jet**

 **You don't have to vote on the poll, you can review you're answer below.**

* * *

 **Words: 7,816**

 **Please review!**

* * *

 **Question: What characters would you guys like to see more often?**


	4. AN: I'm Back!

**Hello readers! I know- I know… Where have I been? Why wasn't I updating? Am I continuing this story?**

 **Honestly, I don't have a good enough reason for you as to why I wasn't updating, but I do have several minor reasons and I hope you would understand:**

 _ **Reason 1:**_ _I transfer schools during the summer (and into my junior year, yeepie!) and the school I'm at as different names for subjects and they didn't want to caught my first two years of history (world affairs and economics) or my two literature years (English Literature and Shakespeare) which would mean I had to take summer school and two extra classes next year. Because of this, I had to prove to them that I in fact did have English I and English II which took forever because school systems suck._

 _ **Reason 2**_ _: I've been rewriting the story and adding a few more twists into it, which then took more time away from actually writing the story._

 _ **Reason 3:**_ _My cats have started attacking one another and we've been trying to figure out why (they still are) and I've been stressing over it because my cat is the one causing the most issues and I know my dad won't hesitant to toss him out. (if you know anything about cats please help. Leo really is a sweet heart and I've never seen him hiss before now)_

 _ **Reason 4:**_ _I've been looking for a job to work at during the weekends (total failure)_

 _ **Reason 5:**_ _I've been working on my original works- because I want to became an author in real life and I've had a huge idea that hopefully became the next Harry Potter… it probably won't but who knows._

 **None of these are a good enough reason to completely ignoring you guys. The one that could have been a major reason was my school issue but that happened back in November. I really am sorry about everything. I shouldn't have done this to you guys.**

 **But during the last few months, I've decided where I want to take this story. Originally, I planned on simply recreating the series as my own with small twists here and there but then I had a huge inspiration when I came across a Yugioh story and thought- why the hell not! What I have plan will be a whole lot more fun and entertaining.**

* * *

 **So here the full summery.** **(PLEASE READ DOWN BELOW)**

 **Full-Length Summary:**

Almost a thousand years ago, the Air Nomads were executed in a one night massacre that took place around the world. It was believed that the Avatar was killed during the strategic attack with the rest of the Air Nomads. However, the young airbending maiden had ran away years prior to the attack and found herself frozen in an iceberg, with her trusting companion, in suspended animation. Her name is Avatar Anju.

998 years have passed sense the war begin, two siblings(Sukul and Kamarua), from the Southern Water Tribe found themselves trapped in the glaciers of their homeland. There, they discovered Anju imprisoned in her iceberg which they then free her from. Anju is then introduced into a world she could never imagined. A world of war where the Fire Nation is the blame, a world without harmony. It's her density to become a fully realized Avatar and return balance to the world by defeating the Fire Nation. Anju sets out to master the three unlearned elements, where she makes friends and enemies along the way.

However, the journey is not an easy one as she and her friends are pursued by Fire Prince Zuko, a banished Fire Nation prince and son of Fire Lord Ozai, who is obsessed with capturing Anju to restore his rightful place on the throne. Prince Zuko has trained for the day he would captured the Avatar only to discover she was nothing like he was expecting. No older than his own sister, and very much naïve to the world, but he quickly learns she's not as naïve as she leads people to believe with the scars on her back. But she's not the only one with secrets as Zuko's past comes back to haunt him as the young maiden slowly awakens his demons and for this, he cannot bring himself to harm her.

During her journey to master the elements, Anju discovered that Sozin's Comet will return within three summers and if that was to happen the Fire Nation will destroy the world. She must master all four elements and end the War before it can happen, a feat that has never been done before.

 **Yes. Yes. If you read the full summary you will realize there is a huge difference between the canon story and mine.**

 **If you were one of few who did, in fact read the summary, you probably noticed the line '** _Sozin's Comet will return in three summers'_. **This is one of the huge twists in the story. Everything happens the winter three years before to have a lengthier story with my character development. After all, this is how I would have written the story if I had been the creator.**

* * *

 **Now that is over with, the pairing poll is back up for you guy sot vote on so don't be afraid.**

 **Also, the edited versions of chapter 1 and 2 should be finished by either Monday or Tuesday but will be update soon. Thank you guys so much!**


	5. Sleeping Beauty Awakens

**Rating:** T or M (depends on how you look at it)

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Avatar or anything Avatar related. Everything belongs to its rightful owner(s).

 **Shout out to my reviewers!**

 **OddShadow:** Okay. Thank you so much for pointing that out! Yes, Kamarua was suppose to stay as Katara, I had actually gotten to chapter three with Katara when I realized it just didn't feel right and it has been done so many times. Either Aang is the only character genderbent or all the characters are. So I thought I'll change it up a little with the main three being the opposite gender. Honestly, I thought I caught all of the Katara Moments. Hopefully that won't happen anyone. If it does, just let me.

 **WeirdGirl69:** I like the idea. I also noticed your pairing, I added it down at the bottom, so I know who you want together. I think it's a good idea and would cause a lot of drama. I'll keep it in mind.

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

* * *

The three teens sat in silence staring at one another. The young girl still laid on the ground waiting for their answer. Neither moved nor spoke.

Her throat was killing her. "You folks alright?" She had yet to receive a response and she knew she wouldn't anytime soon. The stranger tried pushing herself up but it hurt to move, her muscles felt stiff, and she realized with a start that Kamarua had her arm trapped against his hip. She flushed, Anju struggled against him trying to free her arm.

Feeling her tense, he released her. Kamarua watched as she scooted away from him eyeing him. He wasn't sure what she was looking for but her shoulders loosen and she placed her palms face-down on the ice and, in a beautiful dance, she glided elegantly in the air to her feet. However, her dance broke. She landed unsteadily and her knees nearly buckled beneath her if Kamarua hadn't gotten to his feet as quick as he did.

His tongue felt swollen and dry, "Are you okay?" He didn't hold her as he did before, just barely grasping onto her elbow to help balance her weight.

Her honey-colored hair fall around her face shielding her from him, but she peered at him through her strains and smiled, "I am fine. Just a tad bit dizzy is all." She glanced around her at all the ice. Why was she in the pole?

Kamarua noticed his sister wasn't strangely silent and turned around. Sukul was frozen in mid step, she seemed to be fighting a scream. Her body betrayed her when she discovered the girl was a bender, and, unlike her brother who doesn't have a clue with his ability, this girl clearly knew her ways with bending with the ease she performed. She gripped her club she had picked up at some point, ready for the stranger's first sign of distrust. She's never had to deal with a bender before, not intentionally. She's only ever had to put up with her horrible-bender of a brother and no other.

How was she supposed to react? She looked at her brother and the stranger. She was clearly foreign if her clothes were anything to go by. Thin layers of robes that did nothing to shield out the coolness of the south pole. Sukul recalled the only other time she's encounter benders, fire benders to be more specific, the all had black hair and golden eyes. The stranger standing before her had neither.

She wonders, briefly, if she could be a slave-turned-spy for the Fire Nation. It wasn't unheard of from the villages that Fire Nation took control of during the last thousand years. If she is, that strange ability if hers could easily help her fight them. Yet, as Sukul ranked her eyes over the younger girl, she didn't have that stiffness like most Fire Nation citizens.

Anju spin in a slow circle taking in her surroundings. There was nothing but water and ice for as far as her eyes can see. Strange. Wasn't she escaping to the Earth Kingdom? To stay with her friend Bumi? "What's going on here?" she asked turning to stare at Kamarua. Her eyes flashed with recognition but she did nothing but stare.

"What's going on here," Sukul repeated, her grip tightens on her club. She rose the weapon up. "You tell us! How did you get in the ice?" The what now? Anju gave her a blank look of confusion, she then preceded to poke her with her club sharply, "And-why in Spirit's law a'nt you frozen?"

"First of all," Anju batted the painted blue club away as the taller girl continued to poke her, she was treating her like a mama LionGoose! "A'nt is not a word. And second, I'm not so sure of it myself," she replied. She craned her neck to spot any familiar land mark.

Unknown to her, the way she spoke captured Kamarua's attention, he was too observant for his own good. He noticed the way she talked sounded fairly similar to his Gran-Gran. Plain and straight to the point, but every word was broken down. He watched her ever step and noticed a gestured she did. She was cradling her hands in front of her stomach, his Gran-Gran does the same thing when she nervous, she said she picked the habit up from her own mother.

Sukul growled deep in her throat. She was ready for the girl to reveal herself to be a threat. But Kamarua, unlike his stubborn sister, observed the stranger further. He's never seen anyone like her before, even from the firebenders who had attacked their tribe so many years ago. Her hair was the same color as the honey his mother use to feed him, a light orange-ish color. He stared at her clothes next, they have no familiarly to him, what nationality was she? Maybe she doesn't have, she could be a nomad; they not uncommon, especially now days.

The silence was interrupted by a bone-shattering growl from the crater of the iceberg they floated on. Sukul and Kamarua tensed up, life does that to you when you live in a defenseless tribe in the south pole, and fall into defense stances, but Anju gasped. She twisted and begin climbing back up the ice hill she had rolled down and before either sibling could scream at her, she jumped right over the side. The water tribe brother and sister shared a look of bewilderment.

"Did she just…?"

"Appa!" They jumped when the girl celebrated in a loud cheer. She went to coo at a creature they could not see, the creature rumbled in response, "That's my good boy! Aww. You hungry, baby?"

Sukul leaned over to her brother and said in a uncertain voice, "What if it is hungry? She'll feed us to it!"

Kamarua punched his sister, "Shut up," he tried to climb the ice as the strangee did but only slid down. The girl most have bended to get herself over the edge. He stepped back and headed over the opposite side of their ice raft to see if he could find a way around. He wanted to see who the honey-haired girl was talking to. He climbed over icy stones, and, hearing Anju giggles and shrieks of joy, he finally made it to where the girl was and froze. His sister ran into him from behind.

A massive fluffy beast was on its side rolling around in the soft snow. It had a huge beaver tail, sheep-like-body, large twisting horns with ribbons attached to them and six long lanky legs. The monster was mostly white save for the part of it that had a brown arrow running along his body, its back was covered by a large leather saddle. It was larger than any animal that Sukul or Kamarua have ever seen.

And the biggest surprise of all? The stranger was laying on its head prodding it as the animal snuggled up against her. His head was the entire length of her body from head to toe, maybe even more. "Who's my good boy?" she cooed and a large red tongue flickered out to lick her arm. She squealed in delight.

Sukul was the first out of her shock. She stomped up to the girl and barked, "What is that thing?" Anju jumped when she noticed the siblings behind her.

Her eyes harden, " _He_ is Appa," she scowled her as if she had cursed in front of a group of children, she went on to explain, "My animal guide: a flying bison," she reached over and gave a playful tug on Appa's horns. The beast grumbled and tossed the girl off him. She laughed.

Sukul sniffed, "Of course he is, what was I thinking? And this is my sister, Katara. She flies to," Kamarua glared at her.

"That's low. I may have long hair but at least I'm not the one Gran-Gran forces into those spirtisforbidden dresses," Anju giggled and he flushed.

"Those are traditional warrior robes!" Sukul shouted as she begins to blush. Her brother and Anju shared a laugh, Sukul grumbled and chunked a handful of a snow at her brother.

"Hey!"

Appa took a sharp intake of breath. Anju, who has known the beast for as long as she could remember, dropped down into splits by reflex. Her bison sneezed and Sukul was covered in mucus and snort of several different colors. Kamarua burst into laughter as his sister begin screaming and using her belt to wipe away the germs. But it did nothing.

"No need to worry, stranger," Anju laughed. She pulled herself out from her splits, "It washes out… eventually-"

But Sukul wasn't listening to her, "Ahuh! You GoatCow-licking-sheep!" Anju's eyes go wide. Sukul peeled the slim covered tunic from her skin and shivered in disgust, "Do you know how long it took my Gran-Gran to make these fore me! They're ruin now and my Gran-Gran is going to kill me! With how cold it is, this s-s-s-snort is going to freeze!"

Anju grimaced in realization. It was cold, she shivered when the wind picked up ruffling her thin robes, and she knew form experience it was horrible and gross to remove frozen Bison snort- don't ask. "No-no, you're right. I- We need to get you home before that does freezes. Where do you guys live? Me and Appa can-" she yelped when Sukul suddenly stopped making green-faces and jumped protectively in front of her brother.

"Don't answer that!" Anju flinched when she pointed her club at her, she stepped back from the spiked edge. "Did you not see that crazy bolt of light? She could have been signally the Navy! She's probably a spy, you know, like a honey trap," she added seeing the glance her brother was giving the much smaller girl. She'll have a talk with him later.

"'Honey trap'? What are yo- Hey!" Anju tensed when the older girl neared her with her weapon still raised, "What do you think you're doing?"

Kamarua gasped despite himself, "Sukul! Knock it off!" He knew form experience his sister wouldn't do anything to harm her unless she was to attack, but he could see the tell-tall sign of the girl defense stance. This wasn't going to end well.

Appa growled, rolled over onto all six, and slammed his tail against the ground in warning. Sukul tensed in fear as he advanced on her with his lips curled back, he only stopped when Anju held her hand up for him. "Appa. It's fine. I have this." She turned back to the older girl and stated, "I prefer not to fight. Truthfully, I'm against tit. However, if you do not keep your distance…" She backed herself into the wall of ice behind her as Sukul continued to advance on her. She was only a few inches from her, her club still raised, when Anju flicked her wrist.

Sukul cried out in pain. She dropped her club to tenderly rub to her wrist, Kamarua's eyes widen. He stared as she rubbed the red lash that ran across her knuckles. They turned towards Anju who had her head in her hands, "I'm so sorry!" She bowed apologetic. "It' not supposed to leave a mark! I haven't used in some time now… So I guess…"

"For what?" asked Kamarua. He pushed his sister aside to nurse her wound with a pout. He kicked the club to the side to let the protective beast that was now curling around Anju know he wasn't a threat. "She's a jerk that was trying to corner you. I would've decked her I was in your place, but then again, she's my sister," he rolled his eyes when his sister told him to shut up, "I'm Kamarua by the way, not Katara as my idiot sister joked earlier, and the idiot is Sukul," He noticed, with pleasure, that her muscles relaxed as the tribe boy talked. She knew from his eyes he was less likely to lash out and felt clam by the gleam. He stared at her hands she cradled against her stomach, she was toying with her fingers, "How did you do that? Are you a bender?"

"Huh?" her face was splashed with a blush, highlighting the freckles across her face he noted, "You mean the air whip? That is basic bending for all benders. I just prefer not using it, I like using my glider."

"Air bending?" repeated Sukul jumping into the conversation.

Anju's face was flushed and both Sukul and Kamarua could tell it wasn't just from embarrassment. There was something else hidden behind that red face, something unsettling. Her voice became horse and her eyes were fluttering, "Of course. I mean..." she chewed on her bottom lip and stopped with a start. She changed the subject, "By your clothing, you must be a part of a water tribe or colonial. Um… Sukul, was it? We really need to get all that gunk off you if you don't want it frozen. Trust me, ha, it takes forever to ge-to get…" she grasped her head and moaned.

"What's wrong?" Kamarua rushed to her side as she bent over. She was clutching her head and panting. She glanced up at him and her eyes darken and she fainted into his arms, "Hey!" He laid her back down onto the ice and Sukul rushed over in concern. They siblings shared a look.

It didn't take long to confidence Appa to let Kamarua board him as he had originally thought. Hopping into the saddle, Kamarua placed the stranger, she had yet to tell them her name, onto the leathery floor. Once she was position in a way to hurt herself, he looked around the vast saddle. There was bundles of blankets and bags tied down tightly in the rear, several smaller bags hooked around small holes in the saddle's raised one-foot wall and he noticed several laches on the floor-probably apartments of small tools, fishes and papers he reason. He prayed that his sister would control herself and not rage through the girl's belongings.

Appa rumbled in concern. Hesitantly, he reached down and patted the beast's side. "She's going to be fine," he told the large mammal who gave a growl, Kamarua had a feeling it wasn't supposed to be threating but that didn't stop the hair on the back of his neck from rising. "We just need to get to our village to see what's wrong. Sukul. Come one: stop pouting!"

The oldest huffed and glared at him from the other side of the ice raft, "Absolutely not! There is no way you're getting me onto that fluffy snot monster!"

He sighed, did she always have to throw a fit? "Sukul, we don't have time for this. You don't care what happens to this girl, I know. But what are we supposed to do? Leave her out here to freeze to death? Even you can't be that cruel."

"I don't care! I'm still not getting on _it_!" Appa snarled at her, "Besides, it's obvious it doesn't like me either!"

".." He teased, "So… You're hoping some other kind of monster will come along and give you a ride home then? Like the ones form Gran-Gran's stories. You know, the ones where you ask me to check under the cots for as you cry in the-"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

"It looks like you don't have much choice because I'm leaving with or without you."

It didn't take much longer to convince Sukul into climbing aboard the 'fluffy snot monster' train. She sat in the back against the bundles of bags staring down at the girl in the middle of the saddle shivering. Kamarua had pulled out a blanket from the bundles and wrapped it around the girl at some point, Sukul was tempted to take it from her for herself but had a feeling her brother would punch her for real. Kamarua, as he had saw Anju do, was sitting on Appa's head, "Okay. Let's go, Appa." Appa didn't budge, "Ummm?"

"You have no clue what you're doing."

"Like you would?"

Sukul snorted and looked away from the shivering girl, "I dunno. Flick the reigns or something?"

There was a long-braided rope attached from horn to horn on the bison's head. Kamarua grasped it and couldn't help but admire the small detailed placed into the rope like the golden flecks and ribbons. He gave the reigns a nick flick and Appa grumbled in annoyance. He wasn't sure what to expect but it defiantly wasn't the beast suddenly launching itself into the air. The siblings screamed as they came crushing back into the sea with a splash. Appa begin swimming and Sukul could have sworn the thing was laughing at them.

"Don't," she gave her brother a look promising death, "ever do that again!"

"It was your idea!"

"And you listened!?"

 **. . .**

By the time Appa managed to swim them to the small village, night had settled and Anju had stopped shivering but has yet to awaken. The village was silent, everyone had gone to bed Kamarua and Sukul realized with a start. They were then filled with dread, they prayed their Gran-Gran was not awake and had gone to bed herself. At least that way they'll have less to deal with without an old woman breathing down their necks. App shook out his fur and climbed up onto the ice a dozen yards from the village and begin making his way to the small tribe's walls.

"Sukul," Kamarua was carrying Anju bridal style in his arms, "You should go warn the elders about Appa; it'll probably be best." He then stumbled down the tail of the flying bison and struggled to hold onto the girl in his arms. She was heavier then she looked.

"Huh?" Sukul chased after him, grabbing his arm she halted him, "I doubt they'll be able to hurt it or anything. Have you seen the size of that thing?"

"That's maybe so, but they'll cause a panic and you know what happens when they do. Or," he said, "did I have to remind you of the polar bear dog incident?"

Grumbling something that sounded oddly like blackmailing-he-spirits, Sukul headed off to a large tent made from the skin of a large fox and disappeared between the flaps. As she woke the elders, Kamarua hurried the stranger in his arms to the clinic. The clinic was the largest and longest tent in the village made of the heaviest animal skin they could gathered. Unfortunately, Kamarua stepped over a small child wrapped in bandages, most of the citizens of their village were victims to the climate and predators. They didn't have the numbers to create a strong enough fortress as they once had.

Luckily, the clinic has less patients then normal and Kamarua easily found a spot for Anju. He laid her down on the animal fur of an artic wolf. She was no longer shivering and Kamarua wasn't sure if that was a good or bad sign. Nonetheless, he placed two blankets over her and tucked them beneath her waist: better safe than sorry. Ready to leave, he took the time to slip her shoes off along with her robe-like-cap and the jewelry around her head and neck. He had to practically tear her necklace off but thankful it didn't break as he placed it next to her.

Her hair fall around her like a halo and he realized with a start: when was the last time he was this close to a girl? Something nerve-wrecking woke in him and his hands shook as he folded her belongs up. He jumped when a scratchy voice said, "Who's the little lady?"

He choked on his tongue. Behind him stood the nurse of the tribe, an elder lady with her grayed hair tightly pinned back and beautiful layers of robes. She never smiled nor laugh, he couldn't recall a time when she even joke, but here she was with a teasing glint in her eyes. He licked his lips, "I'm sorry?"

"The little lady," she repeated dryly, "Who is she? I've never seen her before."

He stared down at the stranger in his tribe and shrugged. He had a strong suspension his sister wanted to keep the mystical encounter a secret until further notice, so he answered with, "It's a long story. We ran into each other and she collapsed. We couldn't leave her out there."

"…" the women said, "And Sukul was okay with this?"

"It's Sukul. She's never okay with anything I do."

The women kneeled along the side of the girl and ran the pads of her fingers across her forehead, "You said she collapsed? Was she acting strange? Dizzy? Shivering? Heavy breathing? Trouble speaking? Maybe slight confusion?" she reached for her wrist and frowned, "Her pulse is low…By any chance was her speech slur or did she have red skin?"

His throat felt dry, "She was confused," he confessed, "But I think that's because she didn't know where she was… Um-shivering? Yeah. Dizziness. Yes. I don't think she was breathing strangely but she was taking pretty fast occasionally- she was really red right before she collapsed."

The nurse nodded and said softly, "Just as I feared. She has a mild stage of hypothermia, nothing life threating, thank the Spirits, but with the clothes she has on it'll quickly worsen. I highly doubt she was prepared for this weather," she turned towards him, "Go to my tent- you know, the one by Auskoa's- and bring me the small red bundle by my cot. It should have some of my daughter's old coats, they should fit her- worn but they'll work." Kamarua nodded and turned to leave but stopped when the nurse called him, "And one more thing Kamarua, you might want to keep your affections to yourself for some time."

Stuttering, the boy shot out of the tent and disappeared into the night.

 **. . .**

' _Silence is like nightfall'_ , Zuko quoted his favorite book. How true that statement was. Their search had been put on hold until further notice by the prince. He swore under his breath, all they managed to find was a strange iceberg with a carter inside it.

Standing alone atop the deck, Zuko stared out into the distance silently. His hands were placed in front of him along the steel railing with a strange metal red louts bud between his fingers. Rubbing his pads along the groves, he stared at the waves in bitter. Behind him, his uncle approaches him hesitantly.

Zuko glances and slips the metal bud into a slit in his kimono.

Iroh stretched, "I am going to bed now," there was not a trace of sleepiness in his voice as he spoke. He peeked at his nephew and yawned when he gains no acknowledgement, "A man needs his rest." He paused, waiting, for a response that didn't come, "Prince Zuko, you need your sleep. Even if you're right and the Avatar is alive, still out there somewhere, you won't find him. Your father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great grandfather, and his father and his father and his father before him and his father before him and so on, have all tried and failed with the price of their lives."

Zuko hissed and clasped his hands together behind his back. "Because their _honor_ didn't hinge on the Avatar's capture. Mine does," he said through clenched teeth. "The coward's thousand years of hiding is over." He glared up at the moon approve him and swear to himself mentally that he will capture the Avatar, _body and soul_ , even if it was done with his dying breath. Then, his father would welcome him home, back to his throne, back to normality; back into his father's open arms.

His uncle grumbled about his stubbornness and left, gone off to bed along with the lingering crew. Zuko didn't retreat with the others as Iroh would have hoped, solitary on the deck, he recapped his plans on how to capture the master of all elements. It wasn't going to be a simple task, no one ever has even corner an Avatar. The ship was silent, save for the slicing of the water, and it was easier for the prince to rethink his strategic trap.

Behind him a pair of feet pattered against the firm metal of the ship, he groaned, "Uncle, I don't need any sleep." He turned and his breath caught in his throat.

Standing only a foot away from him, gazing up, was a young girl with strangely glowing eyes and arrow markings. She wore a simple grown and her yellowish hair was pinned up. She looked like a woman ready for her wedding and waiting for her knight in shining armor.

He stared at her. There were no women onboard his ship, that much was sure, and he doubted a stowaway would willing show herself to the owner of said ship. Before he could comfort her, she opened her mouth and his ears bleed. So many voices spoke at once, all sounding the same and yet, so different, all those voices spoke in union, "When time comes, you will know what to do."

Without another word, she smiled at him and simply vanished into a glittering blue mist and Zuko could hear correctly again. He stared at where the girl had been and shook his head. Maybe he really did need sleep because what had happened before him _did not_ just happen.

Unknown to him, as he hurried his way back to his bunk, the same incident occurred several times across the world with multiple people. Many he could never imagine him being involved with.

 **. . .**

It was almost two days before the stranger surfaced from her slumber. As she would have open her eyes, she heard two unfamiliar voices speak, "-I'm telling you, Kanna, those grandchildren of yours are hiding something from us. And this girl is the center of all their lies. You've seen that beast outside have you not?"

Another woman spoke, she sounded older then the pervious, "How could I not? A magnificent creature if you ask me, you hardly keep your eyes to yourself. I dunno why you all are afraid of such a… benign being…"

"Benign!? That thing crushed one of the igloos the children play in! What if they had been in it at the time! Gentle by my blubber!"

"Hush, Koi. Our guest needs her rest."

"…" Koi said, "The Council of Elders have given her until the eighth nightfall to leave and if she does not wake by tomorrow's sunrise, they already plan on tossing her into the waves. Either she wakes up now or she never does."

"You can't force someone to heal, all in good time. Oh! Kamarua-" Anju repressed the urged to jolt at the name, "It's nice to see you awake."

"Good morning, Gran-Gran. Lady Koi." Koi grunted in response. Anju felt her hairs stand on edge when someone kneeled next to her and realized that it was Kamarua when he returned to talking, "Has she shown any signs of waking yet?"

"Unfortunately, no."

Fingers gazed through her wispy hair and lingered along her cheeks. "She doesn't have a fever any more. Maybe that's a good sign?"

"You've been helping us in the clinic for four years now and still think that's a good thing!?"

"Koi!"

Something dropped next to her and Anju suddenly felt cold, she couldn't contain the urged to flinch. All at once, the voices overhead silent themselves and she could feel the heavy pressure of their eyes on her waiting for another reaction. She heard Kanna whispered softly, "My eyes could be betraying me but did she flinch?" sounds of agreement hummed throughout the tent.

"H-Hey," a whispered said next to her ear. Sukul. Had she been in the room the entire time? "Bison-freak-" her brother hissed at her and a slap was returned, "-I'll call her what I want: it's not like she told us her name before she-"

"Anju." She said.

"Huh?"

All at once the four people inside the tent along with the several 'sleeping' elders and children glanced over at the frame covered by fur. Everyone has been awaiting the young girl's awakening; by day children would gather around her and admire her complexion before being chased away by the nurse; at night, the elders would question her exists from the flaps of the tent. They've tried many methods to wake her from scent candles to oils to prayers and nothing has worked. Yet, every one of them all heard the tiny voice come from the body beneath the throws.

The nurse, abound hearing the young girl, forced everyone out of the tent, excluding Kamarua and Sukul. She had a feeling the girl would be more at ease with familiar faces. Ignoring the voices of complaint, she clasped the slaps together and kneeled next to the blonde child. The two water tribe siblings sat away from her and neared the fire pot. Sukul's hands were hidden beneath her coat and the nurse had a suspicious feeling she was grasping her knife beneath the dress.

When she looked down at the girl, she was spellbound by the storm she saw inside the child's eyes. She cleared her thought, "Child, here, drink this." She picked up a rag drenched in water and, Anju opened her mouth, squeezed the liquid out.

Anju coughed and struggled to swallow but managed. The women asked a series of questions- one being her name which she then repeated- and after the bowl of water was empty, she up and left. Before she closed the flaps of the tent she told Kamarua and Sukul to not let anyone else in until she returns, not even their Gran-Gran.

Once her footsteps could be heard no longer, Sukul followed suit in leaving, "I have better things to do then to sit here and babysit!"

Kamarua and Anju were left alone and they sat in an awkward silence. The roomed was warm from the blazing fire in the center which Anju watched from her bed, she watched the lasting flames lick the ice (she would have to ask Kamarua how they got ice to burn) and sizzler in the air. She could feel Kamarua' stare on the back of her head as he leaned against one of the pillars holding the tent together, he was sharpening one of Sukul's knifes she left behind.

The knife had belonged to their father and it was his favorite to use when hunting. The blade was five inches long and was a fang from the local Mink Snake, a eighteen foot long animal known to hunt humans for its survival, however, during the harsh winter, the snake breed would retreat to its den until summer. Some say it was the reason his father was announced as his generation's Wolf Warrior and why he became a chief. You were either the bravest or stupidest of them all to face such a predator.

"So," he tried breaking the silence, "Your name is Anju? Never heard anyone called that before- not that is bad or anything! It's actually pretty nice."

"Thanks. It's nomadic. I like your name, Kamarua… Does that mean anything in your village? Dunno why, but the way your Gran-Gran said it…"

"Yeah, it does. It means _strength_ , I'm named after the founder of the village and he was said to have been a great waterbender and all, so yeah, my mom decided to name me after him… and… yeah…" If he could have seen her face, he would have saw the glint in her eyes when she heard the word _waterbender_.

"Cool."

"Yeah…" Kamara nervously snickered, "Does Anju stand for anything?"

"It means _the melody of the Avatar_ ," she spitted at the word to his surprise. He wouldn't have taken her to have a hatred for anyone but many believed the Avatar to abounded them, and he reason that she must be one. "You said you're named after the founder? And that he was a waterbender? Are you one by chance?"

"I am," he said eagerly, he was thankful that his sister had left him alone with the stranger, she could have slapped him for throwing suspension to the wind.

"Is Sukul one as well?"

"No. My sister's not -she actually hates bending- she's training to become a wolf warrior."

"Wolf warrior?"

"Training to become chief," he clarified. "She wants to be one sense our father is chief."

She gasped and sat up, "You're a prince?"

"What! No. Not really," he was pleased by her reaction as a goofy grin cursed his face, "more like Clears- that's what we call the children of the chief, it's just a fancy war of saying 'hey I'm the chief's son or daughter'," he smiled at her, "Enough about me. Why were you all the way out here anyway…?"

"Dunno," she answered honestly, "I just remember heading to my friend's city, getting caught in a storm and waking up to seeing you and Sukul, which by the way, isn't a bad way to waking up."

Kamarua flushed. "O-o-okay! We did have a storm the night before we found you, so, maybe…" he struggled, "you were stuck in the ice for only a few hours?"

"It does not matter to me," she stretched her leg and, with a smile, pulled herself up. The nurse had told her she might be exhausted for a few days but she felt energize if anything. Flexing her toes, she realized her belongs were missing from her procession, she asked Kamarua.

"I'm pretty sure the nurse put them somewhere in here," he said. He bent down and handed her a bundle of blue, "but it is cold here, so you really should put a coat on. I'll go ask where she put them while you change." He left the tent and Anju was alone holding a heavy flounder of cloth in her arms. She shrugged and begin undressing.

The clothes were old and worn with patches of different shades and hues of blues sewn into the fabric, it was easy to tell the clothes had once belonged to an adventurist girl. There were several layers of fabric in her hands and Anju knew, because of her friend Hae from the Northern Water Tribe, that the first layer was actually casual-wear and then the coat was placed over top. It was a more formal looking attire in her opinion compared to what the other women were wearing but it was older and more defined by its years as the dyed has begin to die out.

The first layer was a kimono-like dress with a what-was-once-a-nice weaved-design trim and slits up the sides, and with a matching purple belt to hold the fabric down. A pair of teared baggy pants with patches of gray were followed by a pair of brown boots that Anju saw Sukul wear. The dress was tight on her seeing as it was probably made for someone much smaller around their younger years. She then pulled on the coat and realized it was actually two layers of stiff fabric. The coat was comically similar to Sukul's but with a more formal flare to it with it's awkward V-style bottoming above her knees which was then trimmed with fur along with the long-sleeves of the coat and the large flatten fur collar. Attached to the coat, beneath it, was a very stiff martial of blue cloth pretending to be a skirt that brushed against the floor.

Overall, it was a beautiful hand-me-down.

She had just finished putting her hair inside the coat when Kamarua asked if he could come in. He entered and was carrying along her jewelry and belongings. He stared at her with a dumbfound her look and she thanked him.

Placing her head jewel on, she asked, "Where were they anyway?"

"Huh? Oh. Gran-Gran put them into her chase in her tent for safe keeping. She wasn't sure when you were going to wake up."

"I would love to thank her. These arrow jewels are rare," she tapped the gem beneath her arrow, "and are only sold in the earth kingdom. Takes months to find someone not to mishandle them, they really are fragile- Oh. I've been meaning to ask, where's Appa?"

Kamarua was stilling staring and was slowly ranking his eyes over her, taking in the tribal wear she adorned, "Last I checked, he was by the water. Anyway. Gran-Gran and the others just finished making breakfast for the village. The women thought you might be really hungry, they made some mean Tiger-squid soup."

"O-oh."

He stopped, as he was about to exit the tent, with a frown, "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing really," she explained, "It's just, I'm a vegetarian." She grimaced. She should have expected something like this, she recalled her friend Hae telling her she had never eaten a single fruit or veggie unless she visited the mother city. Anju had nearly fainted hearing that story. She prayed that Kamarua's village wasn't like that.

"Oh," Kamarua sheepishly rubbed his neck, "It's winter so our greenhouse doesn't have much, if at all, so we mostly are relaying on meat right now… Do you have limits? I heard that humans have to eat a form of meat to survival; like eggs or fishshells?"

"Yes. I can eat eggs, fisheyes and frogflowers."

"We don't have any FrogFlowers- I don't even know what those are- but we do have eggs and fisheyes." He grasped her wrist. "We better hurry, even if you are a guest, the village doesn't wait." She allowed herself to be dragged from the clinic and prayed to the spirits the village wouldn't be as hostile as Sukul was the other day.

Speaking of the wolf warrior, she was sitting outside the tent, drinking from a bowl of steaming liquid. As the two passed her she shook her head and continued drinking her soup. She saw no reason to introduce the stranger, the elders already said she wasn't staying long. Even if she was, Sukul wouldn't allow her, the village already has too many mouths to feed as it is.

Anju glanced around the village. It was the first time she actually got to see it besides glances from the flap of the tent. It was… tiny in a single word. There were hardly a dozen tents around the skirts of the village and the wall-barrier was only high enough to conceal the short tents. Along one side of the wall was caved in and covering several igloos in a landslide.

There was a small crowd of roughly thirty people gathered around a small fire. Most of the villagers where women of various ages and they were all elderly, a few young children were sitting on the ground along the fire, even fewer around Kamarua and Sukul's age and even then, they were women.

 _Where are all the men? Surely if this tribe was amazons, Kamarua and the young boys wouldn't be here,_ she thought.

Kamarua smiled as the entire village stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to them. Many of the elders gave her a dark look when they noticed what she was wearing, "Anju, this is the entire village. Entire village, Anju." He seemed a little _too_ eager to introduced her.

She bowed respectfully, gathering the stiff skirt-like-fabric in her hands and draped them out. She raised with her hands clasped together and a smile plaster against her features all the while, "Thank you for caring for me…" she trailed off when she noticed when of the villagers flinched and most of the women tighten their grip on the children. Uncertain, she looked for an answer from Kamarua. "Did I do something…?" he shook his head.

Seeing the guilty face of the stranger, an older woman came forward, Anju faintly recalled her being in the tent. There was a strong family resemblance between her and Kamarua. Her hair has grayed with age and was held back in a braid similar to Kamarua's but with two little loopie-braids along the side of her head. She appeared to be the oldest amongst of the elders, "No, child it is nothing you have done that stricken fear in us. We just hardly get any visitors in our village anymore, and with enemies along the horizon, we take heed with caution."

"Enemies?"

Kamarua didn't notice the sudden panic-look in her face, however Gran-Gran did and her brow raised, he went on to introduced the elder women, "Anju, this is my grandmother, Kanna."

His Gran-Grand smiled, revealing several missing teeth, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Once again, Anju bowed, but performed in a much more causal way, "As do I. What do you mean about e-e-en…" she scathed her nose and her eyes went wide. She slowly backed away from Kamarua who looked at her in alarm, "A-a-a-achhoooooo!" She sneezed, and just like that, she was gone, and the villagers' clothes and hair whipped back and forth. Sukul screamed when she dropped her blazing soup on her in her shock.

"Spirit wilder!" One elder accused as he backed away in fear. He, along with several elders, stared at the ground as if it would open and swallowed them whole. Many of the elders grasped onto a child near them and prayed that the spirits wouldn't harm them. Kanna rolled her eyes at their childish fears and Sukul rushed over to her brother with a pale face.

"Where in Spirits did she go?" Kamarua said nothing, he was staring up at the sky and pointed upwards. Confused, Sukul followed to where he pointed and saw a small dot of blue getting larger and larger as it neared them. She crooked her head, "Is that who I think it is?"

Those who heard her, glanced up at the sky in question and saw what she did. Anju landed on the ice with a grunt and appeared dazed. Her hair was twisted into what resembled a bird's nest but with a quick flick of her hand it falls back into place, "Sorry about that," she laughed, "Usually I have better control of my allergies."

"You just." One young girl said holding tightly onto three younger kids in her arms. Her hair was twisted up like the nurse's and she appeared younger then Sukul, "flew. In the air. Like, seventy feet!"

"You sure? It felt higher than that."

Kanna smiled, "By any chance, maiden, are you an airbender?" necks creaked as everyone whipped back to stare at her.

Sukul fall over herself. She really wanted to hit herself- no, correction, she wanted to hit her crazy grandmother! Why is the spirits' name would she ask such an insane question? It's impossible. Ever airbender was dead! There was no point in asking Anju, it wasn't like she was going to say-

"Of course I am."

This time _, this time,_ she really did fall over herself and found herself planted on the ice. She was glade she wasn't the only as many of the elders did the same, at least then she wouldn't be hearing anything about her being unfit to be a wolf warrior. She grasped her head and her mind repealed the idea. Yet, when she truly thought about it, it made complete sense, all of it: her hair, her eyes, her clothes, even what she did when they first met. She became light headed and mumbled, "Flying bison. Airbenders. Crazy grandmothers and brothers. I think the midnight moon spirit just hit us with a madness potion."

Everyone wore a expression of shock, Anju realized something wasn't right. She tried asking for clarification on what was happening from one of the girls near her, but the girl gasped and backed away from her in terror. Her heart tightens, "I-I-I don't…"

Kanna saw the look on her face, and easily wrapped her bony arm around the young girl. Once the villagers saw what the elder had done, they seemed to eased up, but many did not. "It's nothing to be upset about," she told Anju in motherly voice, "They just don't know what to expect. No one has seen an air nomad in over a thousand years. We all thought they were extinct- that was, until you sneezed, my dear. And, before I forget my manners, let the spirits' bless you."

Anju felt like vomiting, "Did you just say extinct?" Impossible, the thought alone seemed to far-fetched. The four air temples where filled with monks and nuns and nomadic people.

Before anyone could answer her, there was rumble and the next thing anyone knew, Appa jumps into the village. Villagers screamed and scurried out of the way as the giant bison pounced onto Anju. Not putting his entire weight on her, he started licking her fondly as he made a grumbling sound.

She giggled and batted away his tongue, "Appa! Appa! Cut it out!" He groaned and released her with one last lick. She stood up and aired the slobber off. She rubbed Appa's nose, "You're acting like you haven't seen me in weeks!" she saw his saddle was still latched on and that his fur has been brushed and, she glanced at the younger girls, braided.

It took several minutes before everyone realized that Appa wasn't going to harm them, that he simply got overexcited at seeing his rider. Bowls of stew were passed around and Kamarua handed Anju a small bowl of fisheyes bathed in a steaming broth. It didn't take long for the villages to forget Anju's presence and begin laughing and mingling amongst each other as they do every other morning. Children and elders all ate the chunky soup and Sukul was slurping down what looked like tentacles in hunger. Anju had to stop herself from shuddering at the imagine.

One child saw what she was eating and asked why. Anju then preceded to tell that young boy about the air nomads diet, how it is forbidden to eat anything animal-base such as meats and dairy products- Sukul looked at her as if she grown two heads! She told the boy that there are exceptions involving iced milk, buttermilk and few cheeses and very few sea animals. The boy, Kalaya, then asked her why that was so.

"Well," she explained, "air nomads are very spiritual people. We believed that everyone is tied together, including animals, and all lives are on the same life line that attached us to the spirits. Which means, in a way, we would be harming are own." She hadn't realize everyone was listening to her story. She brought her bowl to her lips and drank the remaining juices. Kalaya crawled back to his friends and begin summarize what she said.

 _Cute,_ she thought.

"Anju?" an elder whose name begins with a 'B' said. She hummed in acknowledgement and he continued, "Where have you been staying before arriving here?"

Anju blinked, "I live at the Southern Air Temple, I was sent there to master a more complex style of airbending." She clarified, "and it truly was complex, I've never seen anything like it."

She received many looks.

"I'm sorry," one girl crooked a brow in obviously doubtfulness, "But why on spirits' forsaken soil would you stay there after what happened?" the people next to her hissed at her to keep quiet.

"I don't think I understand."

Another woman butted in before the girl could continue, "I thought the Southern Air Temple was only for monks? Isn't the Eastern Air Temple for nuns and maidens?"

"No, the Eastern Temple is for monks _and_ nuns. The Western Air Temple is for nuns and maidens. I am originally from the Western Temple but my masters thought I needed a more complex way of airbending and sent me to the Southern temple where Monk Gyatso trained me." Despite her telling them the truth, many felt as if something huge was missing from her story, something important.

"Monk Gyatso?" Kamarua beamed, "There are other airbenders?"

She settled her bowl down and glanced at him in confusion as his question. "Of course there are, why wouldn't there be?" she wondered if Kamarua and Sukul's tribe didn't go to the Spirit Day festival at the Southern temple, as far as she knew, many people went. Speaking of the festival, it should be approaching soon. Her mind wander off to columns covered by streamers and civilians dressed exotically as they dance on stage and kings and queens parade around with their children. Couples hiding in halls giggling to themselves as they collapsed against the walls. One handing the other a token of his love as she-Anju was only brought back to reality when Kanna called out to her grandchildren.

"Come along, Kamarua, Sukul," she said interrupting the questions thrown at Anju's way, "you have chores." The two groaned but, nonetheless, placed their blows in a pot of water and left to do their chores.

Kamarua trailed after his grandmother and Sukul waited until the pot of water was filled with everyone's bowls before heading out towards the water; hastening, she asks if Anju would help her and to her surprise, the younger girl jumped up to the chance to 'hang' with her. She waved to Kamarua as they separated.

Kanna and Kamarua headed towards the clinic as the breakfast gathering scattered to their daily activities. Watching to see if Anju was out of ear shot, Kamarua turned to his grandmother, "I told you, Gran-Gran, she's the real deal! You saw her, I've finally found a bender to teach me."

"Kamarua, try not to place all your hopes into this girl," his Gran-Gran sternly told him, "You've hardly know this girl. Her family is probably worry about her, she'll have to return home soon."

Kamarua frowned and glanced back to see Anju and Sukul kneeling over the trim of ice to reach the water, "…Do you think she's classy?"

She gave him a strange look and realizing what he had said, he flushed and raced into the tent. Shaking her head, she glanced back to watch Sukul say something to Anju who frowned in return. A group of children then swarm her and Sukul begin screaming. The older girl couldn't see Anju's face as she made faces at the younger children as their mothers watched from afar. Sukul, finally noticing, clocked the girl across the head.

 **. . .**

Anju knelt along the chore and dipped a bowl in the water. Shivering she brought her hands back and was glade she wore gloves. The water was freezing! She watched as Sukul dunked hers in and begin shaking the water out and, using a small cloth attached to the pot, begin scrapping stains out, she copied her.

"Hey," she jumped when Sukul tried talking to her as she scraped the bowl, it was the first time she said anything to her all day, "About earlier… Is it true that there are other airbenders?" she tried not to sound to hopeful.

Anju glanced at her, "Yes there are, why do you people keep acting like we don't exist?"

"It's just…" she stopped and sighed, she placed her bowl down and turned towards the airbener, "Can I ask you something completely off topic? It might clear some things up."

She knitted her brows, "Sure, I don't see why not."

She stared at her and then Sukul said, "Sense you've woke up, you've been saying stuff that doesn't make any sense. Nothing makes sense, it doesn't add up. I've been thinking about it a lot sense you told us and my head hurts from all that thinking. It doesn't add up! There's a piece missing from your story."

"What do you mean?"

"…" she said, "I'm paranoid, I'll admit it, so I could easily be over thinking it but… how long were you in that iceberg?"

Anju grimaced and thought to herself, "Dunno, maybe a few days, a week at most."

Sukul exhaled through her nose and nodded, she glanced at her.

"What?"

"Nothing. Nothing important." They sat in silence as they continued washing the dishes. The only sound being the splashing of the water and the clinging of the bowls and ice spoons, and their heavy breathing.

The silent air maiden and wolf warrior-trainee stopped when a high-pitched voice cried, "Anju!" they twisted around to see several kids making a bee-line towards them. Sukul groaned in annoyance as the kids swam around the blonde-haired girl asking various of questions;

"-Can you really make a tornado."

"-do you really control the wind?"

"-can you show us some of your bending?"

Laughing, she said through all the exclaiming requests, "Okay. Okay. I'll show you something- Ow!" She yelped when Sukul reached forward and slapped her upside the head.

"Don't encourage them!"

Moments later, against Sukul's request, Anju was bending the children high above her with her bending and catching them as they fall. Their mothers have gone pale as they watched but none had the courage to stop her as the children cheered and crowed around her. Catching a boy in her arms, she tossed several of them into the air and bended the air around with a quick twist of her arms that allows them to spin all the way down.

"More! More! More!" the kids screamed but Anju shook her head.

"Sorry, guys," she stood up, "That's enough for now, I'm tried." There were groans of disappointment and she but her lip, "But we can do something later if you want, what do you think, Suku-Sukul?" But Sukul was nowhere to be found. She shrugged and begin heading back towards the village with the children following her like turtleducklings trailing their mother much to the villagers' amusement.

 **. . .**

Sukul, at some point, at up and left as Anju entertain the kids and had climbed into Appa's saddle to scour through the bundles of cloth and bags. Nobody seemed to have noticed her absence as she dumped bag after bag onto the saddle. She had tried seeing if she could get anything out of the girl but all she got was even more confusion and with what Anju had told the tribe, something just didn't make sense. She's paranoid, that's part of her charm. Kamarua and her Gran-gran likes to pick on her about her paranoia but it wasn't like she could just shut it off whenever she wanted.

She dumped another bag and separated what she found. There wasn't much in the saddle just simple belongings of a traveler: a blanket, bundles of clothes, scrolls for airbending and cooking, dishes and silverware, a tea set, candles and a candle maker, a slingshot, sewing kit, a map, combs and a pillow. And then she came across strange possessions of the air maiden's: a bottle of a frozen liquid with a foreign name, a nesting ball ( _great,_ she thought, _does she have another pet?),_ little keepsakes, a hair pin resembling fire nation origin, several fans for various occasions, pouches of money and medicine, canteens of herbs and dry foods, cosmetics and feminine products, and a staff.

She stared at the belongs and something just didn't add up to her, the girl said she lived at the Southern Temple did she not? What she had in the saddle were the belongings to a _traveler_ , someone who never stayed at the same place twice. Sukul knew that Anju was hiding something, trying to keep a secret under wraps, and she had a feeling of what it was. With how the iceberg was hidden beneath ice and sleet, inside an iceberg that had to have taken so long to make... And that strange dream she had the night Anju arrived…

She picked up a pair of fans and the staff, she jumped off of Appa and hurried back to the village. She prayed that Anju wouldn't notice anything different.

 **. . .**

Zuko sent a scorching flame at two crew members with a kick. He strained the muscles in his legs to flip himself over one guard and sent another blazing blast at another. He stopped, panting, with his arms raised ready for the next attack that didn't come. He barely glanced at his uncle for his next instruction. The three guards who he was training with had their uniforms off, revealing middle aged men with strong features. One had bended a flaming dagger in his hand.

Iroh patiently observed what he saw and sighed. He stood from his stool and sternly scolded the prince who had missed on several occasions, "We have been over this before Prince Zuko. Power in firebending comes from the breath: _not the muscles_. Your breathe becomes energy within your body, _which_ extends past your limbs and becomes fire!" Iroh demonstrates, such by blasting a controlled plume of flame that hardly brushes Zuko's face. "Get it right this time."

"Enough," Zuko snapped, "I've drilled this sequence all morning! Teach me the next set! I'm more than ready."

"No," Iroh retorted, "You are impatient. You have yet to master your basics. Drill it again." He sat back down and Zuko growled in frustration.

Twisting around and without warning, he kicks a blast at one of the guards, knocking the man over the railing and down into the sea. The two remaining guards freeze as the prince sneers in their direction and once he turns around, they leave to fetch their crewmate before he freezes.

"The sages tell us that the Avatar is the last airbender. It's been a _millennium_ sense there ever was a airbender. It's rumor that he asked the spirits the gift of immortality. He's had a thousand years to master the four elements: I'll need more than basic firebending to defeat him!" He exclaimed, "You _will_ teach me the advanced set!"

The two relatives stared at once another until the older man gave in with ease, "Very well," he said reaching to the table next to him, "but allow me to finish my roast duck." He begins devouring the stew as Zuko watched the disturbing display.

The prince groaned and stormed off. He sniffs as he watches the two crew members pull the shivering man, who he had knocked off the boat, from the water. As he passes, he barks, "Training is postponed. Be on the deck within an hour to continue, or you can end up like your friend there."

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 **Words: 9754**

 **Views: 1097**

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 **Holy shit! This is the most I've ever written for a single chapter and I loved it! That's twice the wording in the first chapter of Harry Potter- wow! I literally sat here at my desk writing for five days straight doing absolutely nothing else trying to get this finish! I know, I promised this chapter on Friday and I didn't keep it, the process of this chapter was so much harder than I had thought. Sorry.**

 **Anyway, I know Sokka (Sukul) and Katara (Kamarua) are OCC, but that's mainly because their the opposite gender and I'm using facts studied about the genders for the differences and what is happening around them. Sukul acts the way she does because in the water tribe cultures women are not held on the same level as men, so she tried outsmarted everyone and bettering herself but in the end, she comes off like a jerk.**

 **Remember to vote on my poll (warning Fem!Jet and Fem!Haru are questionable, not sure if I'm going through with that…**

 **What did you guys think? Let me know in the reviews!**

* * *

 **Question:** What characters do you want to see genderbend?

 **So far Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki and Mai are official genderbent. Who else do you guys want?**


	6. The Demons of Past, Present, and Future

**Rating:** T or M (depends on how you look at it)

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Avatar or anything Avatar related. Everything belongs to its rightful owner(s).

 **Reviews on the bottom of the chapter**

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 **Chapter Four**

* * *

As the day progressed from dusk to midday everyone seemed to have settled from Anju's awakening. Kamarua, once finishing his chores, begin his search for the girl when he noticed his sister surrounded by the young boys of the tribe. A few girls lingered, eavesdropping in soft-curiosity. It was typical to see the chief's daughter gathered around the younger generation- usually lecturing them about what a true wolf warrior was- but the girls would stray as far whenever Sukul was in that mood, or as the girl likes to call her mood her-war-meeting-phrase.

The group of children were sitting down, staring up at her as the girls shared looks behind her. He headed in their direction.

"Now men," Sukul glanced towards the girls, who acted as if they weren't listening, "and woman: the most important thing you need to remember when you come face-to-face with your opponent is to never show fear. Becoming afraid only gives your enemy something to thrive on. Show no fear. Show no doubt. You don't want to give your opponent the upper hand. Even if they trap you, you can't ever back down! In the water tribe, we fight to the last man standing. We have to show those firebenders that we are not to be taken lightly. Either as children, as elders, as nonebenders, as women: we fight together as the wolf against the dragon! For without our courage, how can we call ourselves warriors? What mockery on our ancestors' graves?"

The girls from the gathering departed and went on with their day. The boys shred looks of boredom. Sukul wasn't the greatest with speeches, much less people, and most times she tends to repeat what number of speeches she's made. This was one of them.

Desperately as others followed suit, she said with simply directness, "The men are gone. Leaving us to defend our land. We have to fight for our Homefront until they-"

"Until what?" One girl snapped. She kneeled and picked one up of the younger boys, "This war was raged for centuries. There won't be anything left once it ends. Besides, I doubt they'll come back that so-called chief of ours."

Sukul stilled. Kamarua watched as a demonic screeched tore form his sister's throat as she lunges across the fire at the younger girl. Before he could stop her, two of the girls caught her and held her back as she struggled against her and he knew from experience she was not as dainty as she appears. "You slime-rotting-steel-toed-snake!"

The girl's eyes go wide and she made move towards Sukul. "Kalaka," another girl with three braids shouted. She made a move to grab her sister but Kalaka easily side-stepped and pressed her face against Sukul's. The younger girl sneered.

"You keep ordering us to give up our humanity in order to win, just as you father told our fathers," reminded Kalaka, "He's leading his own people to their graves. Every time he returns, more than half the men he takes with him turn up dead! How do we know you won't do the same?"

"And if we wind, soulless, without an ounce of humanity left in us, we've already lost. You said the enemies thrives on us? Then tell me, why are you sneering and growling at me as if you're a baby polar-bear-dog? Maybe you should take your own advice and see where it takes you."

She twisted on her heel and she, along with several others, headed in the opposite direction away from the trainee. Everyone fall silent. Sukul twisted and escaped the girls' hold. Rubbing her now sore wrists she turned towards the kids.

"Sukul?" one asked, "is Kalaka right?"

Her eye twitched, "Class dismissed."

"But we've only…"

"I said. Class. Dismissed."

Kamarua approached his sister hesitantly as her class left her. He called her name and grimaced as she screamed at his sudden appearance, she elbowed him for sneaking up on her. He chuckled and pretend he heard nothing that had been said moments before, "Have you seen Anju anywhere? Gran-Gran said she was looking for me earlier."

She stood, tensed, back turned towards him with her arms crossed. She sniffed, "How would I know? It's not like we're friends. I don't know about you, but so far that girls has been nothing but trouble."

"Trouble? Is that some kind of joke? She hasn't done anything. Literally. She just woke up six hours ago."

Ignoring his comment, she went on, "She's a nuisance. She's already messed up our schedules and I had to stop her form ruining the watch tower! And she's treating the trainees as if their-" she fall silent.

"As if their kids? Sukul, I've tried talking to you about this. They're not men, they're not warriors: they're young boys. They should be enjoying themselves, having fun."

"Well, we all can't have a good time, can we? Not with the war! We should be preparing for when the fire nation comes back. We weren't prepared for when they came last time… and you saw what happened."

"Sukul?"

"Don't. Just… don't…" she stared at the necklaces strapped around his neck in envy. She snorted, turned and feed the fire more of its burning ice, "It doesn't matter anyway, it happened so long ago-"

There was a sudden break of laughter from the side of the walls. It was normal to hear kids laughing here and there, but never something so loud. The siblings shared a look and raced towards the direction the sound came from. They turned just in time to see a kid fall into a pile of cotton-fluffiness. Anju, struggling against the stiff fabric of her coat, sat atop Appa with her legs tucked beneath her. She laughed along with the kids as they slide down the bison's tail, which was being propped up in the air, creating a makeshift slide. Another kid jumped down Appa's tail and landed face-first into the pile of snow. The kids broke into fits of laughter and Kamarua soon joined. Anju floated off of Appa, and swished the kid out of the snow. She begins brushing the snow off him and he beamed up at her.

"Stop!" everyone jumped. Sukul sprinted towards them, "Stop it right now." Shouting in alarm, the children booked it out of the area as Sukul neared Anju. She shrieked, "Is this some kind of joke! What is wrong with you?"

"Why are you yelling at me? I didn't do anything wrong."

"Augh! We don't have time for fun and games with the war going on! Those kids should be training! Not goofing off like a bunch of babies!"

"What war?" Anju broke in, tensing, "What are you talking about-what war?" There is no war. That much she knew. The last she heard of such a thing was the war between the Earth Kingdom citizens, otherwise the four nations have lived in harmony for centuries.

The siblings shared a look of astonishment, "Is that a joke?" How could this girl, no older than them, not know about the war that thundered for centuries? Its destroyed more than half of the world and affected all in its way, no one has been spared. How could she pretend it never happened when her entire race was killed off-leaving her to be the only remaining airbender.

Anju titled her head towards them. They stared at her as if she had grown a second head right before them. Something wasn't adding up…Reaching up, she tugged harshly on a lock of hair, "Whatever. I… I'm going to go meditate. I'll see you guys later." Arms hugging her torso, she headed back into the village ignoring the worried looks she received in her ill-walking state.

* * *

Kamarua sighed. He had gone looking for Anju once again and after a half-hour of searching he gave up and headed back to his tent. He feet ached and he just wanted to relax. Hopefully she'll be back by the time he finishes his book. He entered the tent and froze.

There was a young girl redressing herself in his tent. The coat Anju had been borrowing that day was folded neatly next to the cots along with the silted kimono leaving her in nothing but her borrowed artic pants and bandaged binding her chest tightly, looking almost painful. It hadn't been his intention to peek. Really, he wasn't trying. He had plan on hurrying out of the tent as fast as he had entered but then he saw it. It being the brilliant blue tattooed arrows wrapping around her body from the center of her back ending to her hands and feet and stretching up he neck.

He barely recalled the tip of an arrow when they met but he just thought it as something else. He didn't say anything but his gasp alerted the young girl. She tensed. Kamarua prayed she wouldn't air slap him as she had his sister, he doubted he would be able to control his bending from defending himself. Instead, a few seconds later, she said after a moment of silence, "I'm dressed. You can open your eyes now." He hadn't realized he had closed his eyes. Anju was standing in front of him, her face aflame and her arms cross. Before he could apologize, she blurted hurriedly, "Your grandmother let me mediate in here."

"Oh?" He grimaced at his tone. He sounded like he was accusing her and by the look of shock on the girl's face, she could hear the none existing accusation herself.

"I," justified Anju, her face darkening, "don't make a habit of being n-naked in boy's tents! I couldn't get in the proper pose with my coat and kimono on- they were restricting-so I had to take them off to get into the lotus-fold correctly! Besides, its stuffy in here."

It _was_ stuffy, Kamarua realized. The fire was much hotter than it should be, and around the room several large candles were lit along the floor and reflecting off Anju's pale skin. A mirror of reckless. She pulled on the coat, leaving it open, and crossed the room to lay down. Confused, he silently walked along the skirt of the tent and sat on his cot and stared. She fluffed Sukul's throws and tossed herself down. Kamarua pulled out a scroll from beneath his cot and continued to stare at her.

Feeling his gaze, she turned, "What?"

"Nothing."

With a huff, she pulled a throw over herself and slowly went to sleep with a few glances his way. He tried finishing his story but his eyes kept wondering towards the sleeping girl in his tent. Sukul would not be pleased. She seemed almost boneless as she laid there and… dead looking. He shivered. That was not something he should be thinking. Her eyes shifted beneath her lids and she would gasp and groan ever once in a while as she slept in a trance. Anju's muscles would tense and loosen as the drifted further away from reality.

There was a staff along the side of the tent that Kamarua did not recognized. But he knew they belonged to Anju.

* * *

 _The temple was crowded, filled with noise, as monks and visitors talk over the melody of the singers, two things Anju was most comfortable with. Yet, she had yet to be told why she was forced to intend the gathering, saying how there was a surprise waiting for her and that she would enjoy herself. She giggled, enjoy your youth the monks had told her. Maybe they should have been the others that, she thought as she watched her friend Kuzon grumbled and pout around the brightly lit plaza. Snatching a glass of bubbling liquid, she danced along the trail of the partiers and found herself trailing along the firebender's side. Just as most firebenders, Kuzon wasn't fond of loud gatherings._

 _Anju couldn't blame anyone but the guests. Saiia, daughter of the chief of one of the smaller Southern Water Tribes villages, was a horrible flirt and didn't mind flouncing herself around despite the younger boy showing no interest. Bumi can be overwhelming and many avoided the boy likes a plague. There were also the twins from the Western Earth Kingdom who, Anju couldn't remember their names to save her life, were annoying and were contently trying to start a fight with the bender, and the boy preferred keeping the peace. It was entertaining to watch, to say the least._

 _She cupped her chin and gazed up at him. She knew she had a few too many drinks, even if the drinks shouldn't have been acholic- there are teenagers here. Her robes were muffling her steps as she neared him. He sighed and Anju reached around and snapped her fingers under his noise, and the boy jerked back in honest shock and nearly tumbled off the wall. "Hey there," she laughed as he glared at her for breaking his daydreaming._

 _He watched as she watched him skeptically, awaiting his response, "Hello, Anju." He greeted as she leaned against the wall with him, she leaned against him allowing him to hold her weight. He said nothing._

" _You don't like it," It wasn't a question and Kuzon knew it. The plaza of the Southern Air Temple was decorated colorful banners, stages filled with music players and dancing girls cladded in nothing but curtains, and tables of food crowed by mingling cultures. It was too loud. Measly, she brushed a piece of hair back into place as her traditional hairpiece failed her. "I heard you're joining the Fire Navy. What branch?"_

" _The northern wing."_

 _There was an comfortable silence between the two. "I'm guessing Bumi dragged you here."_

" _Very."_

 _She giggled, "Of course he would. Sounds just like Prince Bumi." They stared at the crowd._

" _Isn't there," Kuzon interrupted their silence, "somewhere can go that's quiet?"_

 _Anju raised a brow and teased, "Are you trying to get me alone, good flam-o?"_

" _One of the reasons, Spirit Maiden."_

 _It had always been an inside joke to them. They both had known about their attractions for each other, but those thoughts never ran any deeper. "There's the praying field or maybe the dormitories. However, knowing my dormmates, and truth me I do, some might be breaking scarce law in those roims." She felt more then heard Kuzon's laughter._

" _Praying field, it is."_

" _Don't let my teachers hear you."_

 _She smiled at him, her full toothy smile that she only gave to him. She took him by the arm and lend him down into the most favored ground on the mountain. The praying filed as large, much larger than the Earth Royal Palace, large enough to contain the four hundred pupils during their daily praying practice to the spirits. The ground was leveled and replaced by carved stone, in the center was a large column covered in silk curtains draping from them creating a strange tent-like shape._

 _Kuzon mumbled something, and Anju hushed him, "I'm not supposed to be in here after hours. If you get me caught I swear Kuzon, I'm tossing you off this mountain myself." He tickles her hip in a teasing manner. Rolling her eyes, she reached forward to the curtains before her._

 _Pushing back the last curtain to enter the filed, Anju's eyes were engulfed in flames._

* * *

A screamed teared throughout the tent and Kamarua found himself tensing in horror as he realized where it was coming form. Anju's eyes flew open and he could have sworn, just for a moment, they had glow blue. She curled in on herself shaking, gasping for air. She continued to shiver, Anju glanced around her surroundings in utter confusion before noticing Kamarua's tense frame that had been half away between bolting to the exit and wanting to help.

"S-Sorry," she laughed breathlessly, "didn't mean to give you a scare."

"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring her statement, as he moved towards her. She stared at him with a blank expression. She hadn't heard him. "Anju?"

"Huh?"

"Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. I must have forgot to disconnect my connection to the spiritual world after mediation. They do love to scare us, free entertainment." She laughed, but her heart was not in it and it was the first time Kamarua saw the glint missing form her eyes. She was still shivering and shaking, breaths coming out in short affectional huffs.

In a moment of wistfulness, he offered her a walk. He told her that Sukul tends to do so whenever she's having difficulty with something or just needs to clear her head, and would walk for miles before returning home. Anju didn't seem keen in the idea until he offered to go with her and soon the two fourteen-year-old found themselves walking afar from the small village of ice into the icy wilderness.

Only one person saw them leave and Sukkul was left with a bitter taste in her mouth.

"…And sense then," Kamarua summarize after hours of walking, "the waterbender population decreased dramatically, because waterbending can only be pass own in bloodlines. It practically vanished during the raids forty years ago. In the end, I became the last known waterbender in the whole Southern Water Tribe and I didn't even know it until I was maybe eight."

Anju frowned at the snow, "Whoa. I didn't realize how serve it was," she worried, "I remember Saiia telling me the waterbenders were disappearing but I never thought…"

Beside her, Kamarua laughed coldly, "Yeah. Most people don't. Guess that was kinda why I got so excited when I met you."

"Me?"

"I was hoping you could teach me watchbending."

"What?" Anju stopped, her face fall, "Kamarua... I'm honored… But I don't know how I can break this to you, but I'm not a…"

"I know- I know. My Gran-Gran and Sukul both got onto me about that. You're an airbender not a waterbender. But I don't know- you seem like you traveled around a lot and you've talked about your friends from around the world. So, I thought maybe you could have some advice or picked up something that could help me."

"I'm sorry Kamarua, but there isn't anything I can do. The elements are completely different form each other. Air; it's like a leaf traveling along the currents. Water… It's more like a pull and push factor, I don't know how to explain it much less understand it. It's not my nature."

"I figured."

"But," Anju quickly interrupted Kamarua's disappointment. "I can take you to the Norhtern Water Tribe. I have a friend up there, his mother's a master and there's thousands of them, I have no doubt they'll be happy to teach you. You could find a master there."

"And how do you suppose I do that? Our sister city isn't exactly 'turn right around the next glacier' it's on the other side of the world."

"You forgot, I have a flying bison. I can easily get us there in a few weeks, that's a month shorter than the quickest ship."

He smiled sadly, "That sounds amazing but I've never left home before. Unlike you, whose free to travel the world, I have to cake of everyone here with my sister. They need us here."

 _We need you Anju._

He nearly crashed into the frozen girl in front of him. She had gone pale, "Huh? Anju? Anju? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

They entered a frozen shore of ice and things got deadly serious with what stood before them. Kamarua cursed himself as he realized what route he had taken Anju down. He had been so engrossed in their conversation he hadn't noticed how close they had gotten to the Valley of Ashes as the elders called it. The shore stretched out largely but ended abruptly with an encased Fire Nation ship sticking up above the shore with shards of ice formed by benders holding it in the air. As strange as it was, he knew the story behind it.

The metal had large chunks missing from where the ice had once puncture it and the sides were brunt and chard with age. Heavily damage beyond prepare. It's symbolic flag of fire was teared and was flapping in the wind hundreds of years later. It was beautiful in Anju's eyes and Kamarua must noticed, "What is that?"

"A," said Kamarua mournfully, "very bad memory for my people." Anju glanced at him; turned and approached the ruins mesmerized. "Anju! Stop! It's forbidden to go anywhere near this thing," he warned, tugging on her coat.

"Why?" She questioned, "It looks abandoned. What's the worst that could happen?"

"It could be booby-trapped. This was the only ship my ancestors managed to capture during the raid. We've never stepped foot inside, who knows what's in there."

"The more reason to do so. Don't you want to see what's on the inside?"

He did. He truly did. It was one of his darkest thoughts, about the armor and weapons inside, the left-over corpses buried beneath the snow. But there was no reason for Anju to know that. He sighed and tried belittling the idea. Sense he was a child he wanted to climb up to the deck and venture under, but he knew the danger and Anju wasn't seeing reason.

"Kamarua," Anju said simply, "I'm going to give you some bender advice right now. If you want to be a bender, you need to let fear go and do as your heart and gut tells you. I'm not scared; neither should you. It's just abandoned ship." She turned and headed for the ship, leaving Kamarua in the shadow of the ship.

It was a challenge. She was testing him to see if he would overcome a small obstacle, and see what he could make of the problem. To become a true bender, he needed to let go of fear. As he started for the ship all Kamarua could see was his mother's smiling face before she told him to leave as the man in red-and-black armor towered over her, he knew who the man was and what his nationality was and where he could put blame. Reluctantly, he followed the spiritual airbender into the creepiest place he'd ever been.

She crawled over the railing, almost slipping to her death, and observes the snow-covered deck. The framing of bones sticking up from the snow layered ground followed by tones of armor that peaked and shined at her. Armor that she knew by heart. Fire Nation armor. Strange, she thought. She doesn't remember the shoulder spikes being flat.

Turning, she went to shout down to Kamarua when she bumped right into him. She would have taken a tumbled if he hadn't cart her. She smiled, "So you finally decided to show up."

"Couldn't let you have all the fun."

Anju smiled at him and turned, heading into the opened doorway that lead into the ship. He quickly followed behind. The ship was mainly empty with selective rooms filled with ice and snow from torn walls and ceilings. They walked around in the darkness of the corridors, passing many darkened empty rooms. Snow BirdRats running past, up and down pipes to their nests. They came across a few rotten corpses, which they quickly glance away from and continued. The mess hall had spikes of ice shooting through it and the two realized where the ice holding the ship launched to.

Eerily in appearance but the recherché of it was enchanting. In a word, breathtaking.

Kamarua gripped Anju's wrist, as though fearful of losing her. He was just glade she hadn't slapped his hand away. Truthful, she didn't seem to mind. They wonder the ship some more and found a room filled with weapons. The weapon vault's doors had been broken off by a few spikes of ice shooting up from the floor. Anju quickly ventured in followed by an cautious Kamarua.

The room was packed from the floor to the ceiling of various Fire Nation weapons. From throwing knifes to broadswords to long-bladed sword to several Jiis to San gu cha and many bolas. Anju noted the Jiis, those were Kuzon's favorite choice of weaponry. Watching him practice with the blades were always astonishing to her, much to the monks' displeasure. Kuzon had always told her that everyone she knows how to fight with a weapon, _because there could be a day when the peace between nations would fall and you won't be able to rely on your element to save you._

He had been one of few to try to reason the Monks' of the Air Nomads into allowing their students to train with weapons. He had always been escorted out of the Room of Elders by the end of the day.

Skeptical, Anju picked a Jii up and twirled the crescent moon-shaped bladed spear in her hand. The weight was more then she expected, but she figured it must be from the blade. The Fire Nation has always been known for its fine metal work. Focus on the spear, she nearly missed what Kamarua had said.

"It was so long ago," he hesitated, slowly, "Almost eighty years. My Gran-Gran was just a little girl, not even our age when they arrived. From that point on forward, the waterbending population decreased rapidly."

Anju stared him, "Surly it wasn't just a simple attack that did that. Maybe the spiritual aura here decreased, that can lead to a drop of bending."

"Well sort of," Kamarua answered truthfully, "We no longer performed the Spirit Festival anymore. It's too dangerous. Besides, nobody here remembers what's done during the Festival. We haven't had one in almost three hundred years." Anju chocked on her own tongue, he turned around confused placing the knife he had picked up down, "Is something wrong?"

"Three hundred years?" questioned Anju in disbelief, "Is that some kind of joke? I may not travel to the south pole very often but I've been for a Spirit Festival just four years ago here."

It was his turn to be confused. He said, in a dry tone, "You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Acting like you don't know. I thought at first you just didn't want to remember the extinction of the Air Nomads but you sound like you honestly don't know."

"Pardon? 'Extinction'? We Air Nomads are not extinct! There's millions of us, all over the world. The Western Temple, Eastern and Northern Temple, the Southern Temple. When was the last time your tribe had any connection with the outside world?"

She received no reply. Kamarua was fixed on her, intellectual. He then asked, "Anju, how long were you in that iceberg?"

"I don't know," Anju was thoughtful of her answer and answered with doubt. Kamarua was staring at her as if he knew something that would break her, he knew something she didn't, something big. Something that could destroy her. How right she was, "A few days maybe."

He stared at her strangely and she shifted unnerved by his gaze. The eyes of a man who witness death… He furrowed his brows. He knew something. Anju thought he would tell her why he asked her such a strange question when he asked, "Anju. Who's the Earth King?"

That was even a _stranger_ question. She answered without hesitation, "King Chintamani III."

"Anju…" Kamarua said softly, "Who's the Fire Lord?"

"What's with all the questions?" she pondered. Something was wrong, something was very, very, very wrong. These questions should not be asked in such a tone, that much she knew, "Everyone knows who the Fire Lord is. He's legendary."

"Please just answer the question."

She answered with a tired tone, "Fire Lord Sozin. He was crown nearly hundred years ago." Kamarua had gone pale and she was filled with a sense of dread. What was wrong? She knew the Fire Lord was Sozin, she and her dorm mates had gone to the capital just a year prior to witness the new law allowing travels to meet with the Air Nomads.

"This ship," he explained to Anju, "arrived eighty years ago in search of the reminding waterbenders of the South Pole. It was one of thirty. This place has haunted my people since Gran-Gran was a girl. It was part of the last Fire Nation attacks on our shores, and we know it will not be the last. The Fire Nation has gone completely mad. Fire Lord Ozin ordered his military to invade all other nations and place them under his rule."

Anju blinked. And blinked. She stared at him in pure confusion, "That isn't true."

"Why not?"

"No offense, but I've been to every nation and I have friends all over the world. That includes the Fire Nation. Everyone there is so nice, so sweet and friendly. They're nothing more than huggable. I've been everywhere and I've never heard nor seen them attack anyone or anything. Much less a war."

"How long where in that iceberg?"

The question repeated itself and slapped Anju in the face. She stared doubtfully, "I don't know."

"How many people live in the Eastern Air Temple?"

"I… I-I don't know? A million? Three million?" she heard her heart pulsing in her ear.

How was he supposed to tell her, to tell her about his theory without her going nuts? "Millennium."

"Pardon?"

"The war itself is over a millennium old." Kamarua said seriously, "You don't know about it, because, somehow, you were in that iceberg the whole time, maybe even longer. It's the only explanation that makes sense. Fire Lord Sozin died nine hundred years ago, his descent, Ozin is Fire lord now. The Earth King Chintamani III died thirty years after the Avatar went missing. Earth Prince Keui became the 78th Earth King as of twenty years ago."

He saw the confusion cloud in those silver eyes as Anju tried to make sense of what he was saying. It should be impossible, yet, it made sense in a way as impossible as it sounds. "That's impossible," she exclaimed, "Do I look like a 1015-year-old woman to you?" A millennium? Was that even possible? Surly for the human body that couldn't be. To be trapped in an iceberg for a thousand years, how could she have survived with no air? If so, all her friends have passed, everyone she loved gone forever. Gyatso… Kuzon…

She hadn't realized her knees were wobbling until she collapsed against the wall. Anju shook her head, she didn't want to believe it but as Kamarua spitted out facts her mind shut down. Sliding down the wall tears swelled in her eyes. "That's not possible, right?" she asked Kamarua in doubt.

"I think it is."

Her face fall in despair. She looked up, glancing through her bangs, at Kamarua, "W-What's happened sense then?"

He couldn't tell her. He just couldn't. Talking about the war was one thing, for when she was to leave she would hear the nonstop talk of gossip of what villages were recently attacked. No, it was better to tell her about the war, telling her about her people was a different story. He would only tell her about her people when the time is right.

"A thousand years…" Kamarua jumped when Anju spoke so suddenly. She hesitantly wiped her tears with her sleeves. "I… I just can't believe it. I have to see it with my own eyes."

And he prayed that she wouldn't. He kneeled next to her, caressing her hand in his. "I'm so sorry, Anju. Maybe, somehow, there's a bright side to all this?"

She sniffed and thought back to what she woke up to. The worried and weary looks on his and Sukkul's faces, the first things she saw. Anju glanced down at his hand engulfing hers and gave it a squeeze, she missed the flustered look when she smiled, "I did get to meet you and Sukkul, even if she is a bit of a pain." She breathed, gently, "I can't change what happened. The past is in the past, and there's nothing I can do for it. All there is, is the present."

Kamaura frowned. Letting go of her hand, he got to his feet, hiding his reddening cheeks. "Come on, let's head out of here." He suggested.

She smiled, whole-hearty, up at him.

Kamarua and Anju tried exiting the way they came in, only to realize with the slight upward tilt of the ship made it nearly impossible with the ice and snow and Kamarua didn't want to take the chance of either of them getting hurt. Having no choice, and with a pout from Anju, the two travel up the ship until they could find a way out, much to their annoyance. The sun was beginning to set and they knew they didn't have much time before some realized they were missing, that's if they haven't yet. One ladder took them to the observation deck, which also happens to be the control center of the ship. The room had clearly been raided of all useful information the tribe could have used, maps and planners and journals gone, and ice and snow layered the floor and machinery, deeming them useless.

There was a horrible feeling in the pit of his gut, Kamarua waited in the hall. Something wasn't right with how the snow sat, he thought. It was piled up against the doorway, as if someone pushed it there and the windows were still intact so no wind could have brought any of it in. Anju entered the room, ignoring his warning, but she quickly regretted it when she tripped of a thin wire.

And the spirits were let loose.

Bars from the ceiling came down and caged them within the room. They gasped, pulling on the bars to no avail. Laughing nervously, Anju turned away from Kamarua's seething gaze, "Guess I should have listen to you earlier." But the jokes were gone when the rattling sound of pipes and alarms came as machinery around the room started operating for the first time in eighty years. The sound was followed by gas filling the room from the pipes above, the smell was revolting.

Both teens gagged and Anju was filled with dread when she recognizes the smell. Kuzon, back when he was beginning in training for military, would let her meet up with him when he was station in the colonies and allow her to watch him train with the flammable gas. Her eyes bugged when she saw the middle of the floor open a small apartment and saw a warning flare within.

" _the Fire Nation's flammable gas," Kuzon had once told her, "is the strongest and more lethal in the world. Nobody has ever been able to top it. It can melt the metal it touches within minutes, we've never tested it on a human or animal, but its theorize that it'll turn us into dust. If you ever see it, run as far as possible. Promise me.."_

She had been disgusted when he had told her so but now she knew the real danger of it. If that flare went off they would be nothing more than ashes in the snow and nobody would know. Quickly, she glanced around the room for an escape and saw a small slit in the ceiling, and, with a flick of her wrist, the slit expanded and created a gabbing hole within the roof.

Kamarua stared at her as if she gone insane, he dry heaved. She took him by the arm and bended them both out of the room onto the ceiling in just the nick of time. The warning flare went off, exploding the room and the sudden gust of wind sent both benders flying. Anju bended the currents to pull them onto one of the ice spikes holding up the ship. Kamarua stared as flames escaped from all openings of the ship, the fire hadn't stayed just inside the control room, it traveled throughout the ship as well. Everything was ablaze, nothing was going to remine.

He had begun to wonder what would happen to the ice holding up the ship when the spike he and Anju stood on shook and cracks been spreading up from the bottom. Kamarua didn't hesitant, he grabbed Anju and jumped off the spike onto the deck and over the railing to the distinct icy floor. He hardly remembers moving.

Someone screamed, and neither could tell who it was as the ice gave out below the ship. The ship, that has stayed afloat the ice for eighty years had finally been released back into the ice that shattered below its weight allowing it to escape back into the sea as if it had never left. The gapping openings were quickly filled with water and Kamarua took Anju's hand and sprinted as far away as possible.

Anju watched, astounded, as the flare exploded in the air, raining down showers of sparks that could be seen for hundreds of miles.

What has she done…

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 **Words: 6,171**

 **Views: 2,088**

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 **Everything in bold are the** _ **official couples**_ **: I've added in the reviews and both pervious polls and this was the outcome!**

 **Anju x Zuko: 20**

 **Sukul x Male!Suki: 19**

Kamarua x Anju: 14

 **Kamaura x Fem!Jet: 10**

Fem!Jet x Zuko: 8

 **Male!Mai x Ty Lee: 8**

 **Teo x Toph: 7**

Kamarua x Fem!Haru: 6

Sukul x Ty Lee: 4

Male!Mai x Zuko: 3

Azula x Ty lee: 3

Kamarua x Zuko: 3

Ty Lee x Fem!Haru: 3

Sukul x Toph: 3

Male!Mai x Sukul: 2

Male!Suki x FemHaru: 1

The Duke x Toph: 0

Fem!Jet x Ty Lee: 0

* * *

 **Time to answer the reviews!**

 **ObeliskX:** I'm sorry to disappoint you but Kataang lost but I really hope you stay to read the rest of my story because I promise there is going to be some flare with the two, I swear it. I love Kataang but I also love Zukang as well, I don't favor one of the other. They're both cute. Yes, Kamarua is the shy guy, a lot like Katara but has more control over his emotions. He's really not shy (you'll see later on. Hint. Hint.), it's just Anju is someone he would never dream of because she is just so different and he doesn't know how to react, especially sense all he's known is his tribe. An Sukkul is aggressive, as you could tell in this story. Thank you so much for your review, hope you enjoy the chapter!

 **M:** Thank you! Trying to rewrite the beginning of the series my way is pretty difficult because the series showed the beginning perfectly. I'm just adding in scenes. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

 **Guest:** Yeah, the story is weird and I know the whole iceberg underground was a little out there but I do have a reason for it and I'll explain a little of it. It's been a thousand years sense Anju disappeared and her iceberg mended with others and a portion of her iceberg was left in the underground craven. This is common with ice especially sense during the first few years of her disappearance there was still numerous of waterbenders in the south who could have pushed her iceberg around without knowing it. And Sukkul isn't a crybaby, really. Emotional yes, but that's because we girls are naturally more emotional, and with everyone against her it's a little harder on her. Much like Katara trying to prove she could do anything. Thank you for the review, really.

 **SoManyBooksSoLittleTime2017:** Thank you! I'm glad you liked it that much. I've read Waves of the Water too, that's actually what got me interested in writing this story, I love that author style. It's beautiful and so unique. I really wished she finished the last few episode of the series but we can't have everything, I'm just glad she got as far as she did. Thank you for your review, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

 **Guest:** Not trying to be rude but the millennium thing is staying because I saw so, but thank you for telling that I need to stop lengthen everything. I really do have a flaw for that, so I hope the paraphrase in this chapter weren't overbearing.

 **RiverDownTheWay:** Sorry about the AN, really. And I promise Jet will be more in it and I thought the same about Toph, I wanted to genderbend her but I truly wouldn't make a difference and I thought I would be cute to have Kamarua babying her. Azula? Don't know yet, she won't been sense until after we meet Toph so I still have time to decide on her. And for the 'Bun in the Oven', you got it wrong but I like the idea. Could I use it for after the war? Lol.

 **Warning:** _Next update will be in July!_ I'm moving again in June and so I won't have a lot of time to write but I promise I should have a chapter up by July. Sorry guys, it literally came out of nowhere. My dad and mom can't find jobs here because the city is overpopulated and so we're moving back to our old town. I will be updating this tory but I may take longer than it has been. So, sorry.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Tell me what you think down below. Thanks!


	7. The Avatar Returns

**Answering to reviews are no kept on the bottom.**

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 **The Avatar's Return**

 **Chapter Five**

* * *

It hadn't needed to comet to this.

That was the only conclusion that Sukul's clouded mind could come up with. She looked out into the horizon, dazed by the day's events. She hasn't moved sense the ship containing prince Zuko and Anju departed from the destroyed village. Everything around her seemed to have collapsed and burned as reality of the last two days crushed down on her and everything she had done. Of course, she would never admit to anyone. It had all begin with Kamarua and Anju's adventure into the Valley of Ashes. It was an honest mistake, an innocent mistake, a careless mistake; a dangerous mistake. It had led up to the morning she had always feared repeating itself. Kamarua never listens, wasn't one to follow traditions- not that she was- couldn't at least topped Anju from entering into the valley forbidden by all villagers?

But the girl managed to talk him into it… or maybe, she pondered, he just wanted to prove something. She didn't know nor will she ever. What happened afterwards was a spite of the moment ordeal, something she could never take back. But she was doing so to keep everyone save, including Anju, who was could now pay for Sukul's mistake with her life. The sun had begun setting to the far north and the world was unclasped into a painting of stars.

" _Kamarua!" said boy jumped at her sudden exclaim. He had tried to stop Anju from pacing her belongings after Sukul had banished her but she couldn't allow him. If he was to help her, then she would be force to banish her brother as well. Never once had she been so conflicted with what she had done. On one hand, she was finally in control and woulnd't afford to screw up her only chance of the elders' approval but by doing so, she may loss the last-respect her brother had for her._

 _She clutched the fan tighter to her stomach, the fan revealed to be of Fire Nation origin; the fan she had used to prove Anju's guilt._

 _From a distance, to Kamarua, she seemed put together and collected and in control of the banishment, but saw and heard the muffled guilt in her voice, "I'm doing what dad told me to do: protect you, protect the village. Even if it means losing everyone's trust, losing yours. But that girl is nothing but trouble. You'll see. She has connections to the Fire Nation. Why is that? Why could she, the last airbender, have a connection to the enemy? The people that_ killed _of her people? I'm doing what dad would have done. Why can't you see that!"_

He had ignored her, spurting curses to her name and vowed to shun her from his life. But that was before the Fire navy arrived on their shores with their prince in tow.

Sukul had ordered everyone into the safety of their tents when a girl older than her as sighted a ship from the watch tower, and for once, no one questioned her. She had taken out the traditional Wolf Warrior garbs and painted her face to resemble that of the Bay-Wolf, the tribe's sacred animal. In the war paint she was a different person, she kneeled atop the wall with a spear strapped to her back, several knifes tucked into their wraps, and her boomeranged secured along her shoulder blade. She was finally in her element and no one was going to stop her form fighting, and no one wanted to.

The village had sat in silence for hours, no one daring to breathe. Just when she was sure that the navy had not seen the flare, and the ship reported was fishing ship, a deep rumble of ice breaking echoed form the fog surrounding the village. She doesn't remember much after that; pandemonium broke out in the village as ice was uprooted beneath their feet and, in the state of panic, she can't recall what had happened. One moment she stood arrogantly on the wall and the next, the wall had crumbled underneath her and she had gotten back to her feet to rush towards the offender, she had been kicked away into the snow and buried beneath it with no effort from the noble of the ship.

The man had ordered the roundup of the elders. The woman begged for their parents to be spared as their family were split even further apart then had been. The soldiers took no heed to their pleas and forced the elders onto their knees forming three lines of ten for the novel to see. Gran-Gran, the oldest of the tribe, was forced to the front and it took all of Kamarua's will power not to bend his enemies back to sea. But it hadn't ended there, the noble then had all children bonded together and the woman kneeled behind their parents. Sukul had gotten a nice right-hook to one solider as she and several girls were cuffed together.

Once everyone was separated, the novel stood before them, and said, in a voice of authority, "I am Prince Zuko, son of Fire Lord Ozin. I did not come here to simply terrorize you. I came here with a question that you have the answer to. If you answer it, and give me what I want, me and my man will leave, and you can go on with your lives," Once Prince Zuko saw the submission of the tribe, having Sukul gagged for her loud mouth, he demanded, "Where are you hiding him?"

The Fire Prince had come prepared for, most likely, an elderly old man, mast of all elements, speaker of the Spirit World. But Sukul knew the truth and the boy knew for he had grabbed her, burning off her chains, forced her to kneel by her hair and demanded answers. She had spat in his fact, only to be tossed to the side with a well-placed kick to her throat.

" _The Avatar is gone," she said gruffly, "It is what it is."_

" _What's that supposed to mean?"_

" _It means that you're too late."_

Prince Zuko grew impatient and annoyed, he took his anger out on the chained village. Soldiers punched streams of flames into the crowd who ducked and screamed. That was when Anju appeared out of thin air, she had somersaulted into the path of the puffs of fire and extinguished the flames with a twist of her staff. Never has Sukul been happier and displeased all at the same time; she was supposed to be as far away as possible. What was she doing back here? Unenthusiastically of her entrance, Zuko had her surrounded by his men and ordered to ashes. They had hurled balls of fire in every direction but she had disbanded them easily, leaving her and Zuko on the field alone.

 _The prince ordered the stranger to remove the hood she wore, and she did so, if he promised to fight her and her along. He agreed and was astonished when Anju uncovered the tattoos adored on her forehead. And as so, she revealed herself, "Looking for me?" she questioned rhetorically._

 _Prince Zuko was dumbfounded, "You're the last airbender? The Avatar?"_

And that was it, Anju sealed the deal by handing herself over. She swore Prince Zuko into an honorable vow to stay clear of the village and to never seek revenge. She put up no struggle as she was forced into a pair of stiff cuffs chained to her feet and manhandled onto the ship. Kamarua had tried stopping her, as the soliders had gave them the keys to unchained themselves, but was held back by his sister and only now, hours later, did she realize what she had done. She just handed victory to the Fire Nation.

And everyone knew it.

"It's a mess," Sukul startled, Kalaka approached her, "You _really_ screwed up this time."

"Thanks for summing it up."

Kalaka frowned at the lack of response, "Kamarua is acting strange," she told Sukul, casually, "He was packing a bag."

Sukul's eyes widen, she bolted for her tent leaving Kalaka to stare at the horizon in her place. It didn't take her long to get to her tent and find Kamarua kneeling, stuffing two bags filled with clothes and necessaries when she kicked him from behind.

"Augh!" He twirled and glared at his panting sister, "what in Spirit's names-"

"I know what you're thinking," she hissed through her teeth, "You're going after her! Aren't you?"

He stood and tried to tower over her, unsuccessfully, "We have to do something. She saved us. Now we have to save her."

"Kamarua-"

"No! _Don't_ Kamarua me!" he jabbed his sister, pushing her back. She flinched as his glare enhanced and focuses on her, "We could have done something! We could have stopped them from taking her. You knew, you _knew_ she was the Avatar- or at least you theorize- and you didn't say anything. Was that why you tried so hard to prove her guilt? To get her out of here? Well guess what! The Fire Nation won. And now Anju is going to pay for it with her life. You happy now?"

Sukul suddenly found the rug interesting and turned away, clasping her arms, "I had a hunch, yes, but I didn't think too much into it but I thought if she was, then it would to best to get her to leave. It would only be a matter of time before the Fire Nation came back here. And when Prince Zuko was looking for someone who didn't look like us, _I just knew_ ," She frowned, "Nothing adds up. The Avatar vanished hundreds of years ago, after all the Air Nomads were killed. But Anju is still here. How is that possible? It's like she was frozen in that iceberg for all those centuries."

Kamarua tensed, his sister was dead on but she didn't even know it. His sister has always been strange, acting in ways as if she already knew the answer but truly didn't. "Sukul, they took our mother away the same way they did with Anju. Dad wouldn't have watched us be taken away. He would have fought. He should have fought," Sukul's brows creased at his last comment. Was he angry that dad never managed to save their mother or was he…? "She's _our_ responsibility. We should have fought for her! I should have fought for her…"

So that was what this was all about, Sukul thought. Kamarua has always been a sensitive boy, she knew sense she was a child. And he had taken a liking to Anju in just a few short hours, her begin taken away would have an impact on him. "Kamaura it wasn't your fault she was taken."

He snorted, bemused, "I may not have been my fault as to why she was taken, but it is still my fault that she's gone. I could have done something, I waterbend, and the Fire Nation still thinks there aren't any left here. I could have done something."

"No," Sukul made the effort to sound reassuring, "There was nothing you could have done. You don't even know how to bend, you would just make matters worse. Not just for us but for Anju, it would have seemed like she was breaking the deal she made. Even if you knew how to bend, if we did anything to their prince the entire navy will be on our shores in just hours. There was nothing nobody could do without making everything worst."

"What would you've done if they tried taking me away?" He asked tightly.

"That's different," Sukul truthfully said, "you're not the Avatar, they wouldn't have the same justice if I was to attack-"

"What would you do?"

"…" She said, "I'll kill every one of them." Sukul looked at his face, he was giving her a look, and sighed. There was no way around it now that she admitted the truth. Kamarua had always preferred using words to make his opponent submit and sometimes, you just can't get around it. "Okay, what do you want us to do? How are we supposed to save her? They're on a battleship, a fuel ship! It'll be a miracle if we catch them on our sad excuse of a canoe. Oh wait, we don't even have one now. You like to think that is going to work out just fine, but I don't see it."

She stared at the bundles of supplies that had been hastily made by him, "And I doubt you have the correct supplies."

"May I help?" a tender old voice called from behind them, the two siblings whirled around in shock to find their grandmother smiling at them. Her hands were folded and kept in her sleeves, "I had a feeling I would find you here. I knew you would go after her, it's just the kind of kind-hearts you are." She hobbled passed the stunned siblings and she sat two bags down and reached into one of the trunks that had been padlocked for years that had been placed beneath Sukul's cot. Kamarua and Sukul's eyes widen when she pulled out a smaller rounded box.

"How long has that been there?"

Kanna chuckled at her granddaughter's question, "Far longer than your mother, that's for sure, and far longer than me." She unlocked the box with a key strapped around her neck. The box was made of a strange crystal-like metal and the inside reflected the light as if it was a crystal hollowed out. Kana reached in and pulled out a scroll, "This is one of the only remaining maps of the world that the Air Nomads made. If I recall correctly, the Fire Nation has one and the Earth Kingdom has three, all others were destroyed in the fire when the Air Temples fall," she ran the pads of her fingers along the scroll with care, "I know what you two are planning. I've known sense she was taken."

"Gran Gran, you can't stop us, we need to do this or-"

"Hush yourself. I knew from the moment we discovered that you were a bender; that one day you will realize your destiny. There hadn't been a single waterbender in the whole Southern Water Tribe since my friend Hama was taken away, eighty years ago. I knew it was only time before your destiny would catch up with you.

"The day you brought that girl here," Kanna confessed, terrors glisten in her eyes, "the night she arrived and you all fall asleep, I went to check on you to see who this mystery girl was. And she was awake, staring at both of you and she said, when-the-times-comes-you-will-know-what-to-do', and she turned towards me. Her eyes were glowing. And I had a vision, I saw two warriors, battling alongside a girl with the same glowing eyes and markings, I saw you two were to become great heroes, to be remember for centuries. I knew that I would have to see you off shortly, but I had hoped that it would be later.

"Anju showed me that vision, or more precisely, the spirit of the Avatar showed me. It's one of the many reasons why the Fire Nation fears the Avatar. She can communicate to the Spirit World and those spirits can guide her along her journey and will do anything to protect the Avatar. The Fire Nation doesn't wish to live by the Spirits as they once had, they wish to live by their ruling. With Anju mastering the four elements, she will begin to change hearts. And it is the heart that all wars are won."

* * *

Her arms, chained, weighed her down as she was grasped harshly from behind as the solider held onto her as Prince Zuko, his uncle, and several more soldiers observed her tokens. Zuko flipped the staff in his hands around several times, unfolding it and refolding it, and finally, after a moment of studing the strange contraption praised, "This would make an excellent gift for my father." He looks at her in honest mockery, "I suppose you wouldn't know about fathers, being raised by nuns."

She smirked and corrected him. "I was raised _and_ trained by the some of the greatest monks known to man. But I guess someone as yourself would not take the time to study the structure of pupil training of the Air Nomads culture, anyone who did their research would know that pupils stay where they will be most successful," she told him pointedly.

He was cold, she decided. He lacked all form of emotion, besides anger which never seemed to ease off his shoulders. Zuko ordered his soldiers to escort the Avatar down below deck and that he will be there shortly, after everything is set. Unpleased with the sudden shift of character, Anju pretended to loss her footing and tripped one of the guards. The prince showed no care to the fallen solider nor the tousled Avatar, for he turned and headed into the ship. For her small performance, she was manhandled down into the room below deck. It truthfully wasn't a room, most like a mess hall with a cell door.

She was along in the room as the soldiers behind the bars leered at her and tossed graphic comments, she shudders in disguised and ignored them to the best of her ability. It didn't take long for Zuko to enter the room and order the soldiers t leave. "Leave the rest to me," they left and once they were out of sight, the prince opened the door and lead the bender by the chains through a series of halls. He opened a door and shoved her inside without warning. She falls forward, and would've hit her head against a table if she had not blown a puff of air to steady herself.

He scowled her and slammed the door close. Anju turned and saw his uncle, who never told her his name, sipping a cup of tea on the other side of the room. His eyes widen at her bending. Iroh placed his cup down and asked, "The test?" his nephew nodded.

"What do you want with me?'" she blurted, speaking for the first-time sense brought below, "Connections? Hate to break it to you, but I don't have any anymore."

"Oh?" the elder chuckled, he smiled gently, as a father would to sooth his child's fears. Against her better judgment, Anju felt her shoulders relax, "My nephew just wants me to perform a simple test on you."

"And this test is?"

"I will lay three items out on the table. And then you're free to go."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

She stared, "Who are you?"

"You can call me-" the prince coughed and his uncle apologized before moving on.

Anju looked at the plump man with graying hair and winkles, the creases around his eyes and lips showed he smiled often. "Okay," she agreed. Iroh smiled at her.

Zuko leaned against the wall, just behind her, watching her every moved in case she decided to change her mind. Iorh placed a pebble, a cup of water and a small lit candle along the table and Anju immediately knew what test he was performing. A ceremony of sorts. The ceremony is only ever perform on an Avatar's sixteen birthdays to let the world knew who he or she is, the day when they would usually discover they are the Avatar. But she was told a year earlier, for reasons the Council of Elders would not tell her, and so her ceremony was supposed to be on her Naming Day, the day when an Air Nomad's true name is revealed.

She watched as Iroh bowed his head and prayed under his breathe. Anju had never attended her own Naming Day, instead, that was the day she vanished into the sea, so she never got to feel what was going to happen next. Until now. There was a burning sensation in her stomach as energy pulsed through her veins. Her gut tighten and the pebble twisted and fall off the table, the water poured form the cup and formed a circle, and the candle's flame was drawn towards her.

Iroh stopped praying. The room fall silent. Anju slammed her hands onto the table and gasped, she never wanted feel that again. It was as if the gut quenching was drawn back to a different world.

She looked at him, "How did you do that? Only a _guru_ could possible to that."

He smiled sadly, "I have learned many things from my years of traveling the world. Some containing the secrets of the elements."

"You are the Avatar." She twisted in her chair to Prince Zuko. For the first time, she saw a smile on his face, twisted as it may be. They lied to her, "We're done here. You are not prisoner to the Fire Nation. Don't even try to escape. This warship is equipped with some of the nation's finest firebenders and-"

But Anju was having none of it. She breathed heavily and leaped over the table and easily escaped through the doorway as she sent a blast of air across the room and propel the prince and his uncle against the opposing wall. A surprise as it was that no bender should be cable of bending with their arms and legs bonded, but she was an airbender, as long as she could breathe, she could fight.

She ducked down the hall the prince had dragged her down and practically flew onto the deck above. She glanced; nothing but water and icy cliffs all around them. Anju stared at the towering cliffs and was struck with an idea, all she need was to find her glider and then she'll be home free. The only question was: where was her staff? She recalled faint whispers of bring her possessions to the prince's quarters.

Cutting around a corner in the boat, she met a guard in the hall. She blasted him away with a quick exhale, strong as any hurricane and the caught-off-guard guard was knocked into the door behind him.

The halls thinned and she scurry down random walkways in hopes of finding Zuko's chamber when she ran straight into a group of soldiers on their break. Enmity, the soldiers rushed her and all she did to avoided them was a simple handstand and tossed herself over them with grace. A few corners here and fewer hallways she found a hall of several doors where no guard stood. Behind her, she could hear shouts of the guards searching for her. Anju didn't waste her time.

One door led into a room filled with ceremonial decorations, another empty room, a room with a sleeping man and the large chamber for someone who wasn't a guard.

Lucky me, she thought as she entered the room, attentive. The room was blend with a small table to one side piled in melted lit wax and a mattress to the other, a pair of board-swords was the only decoration the room held beside the Fire Nation symbolized drape. She could have easily overlooked the room, if she had not seen her staff leaning against the corner of the room with her bag strapped to it. She picked up the staff and frowned.

It was too easy.

She went to leave, she was half way down the hall back to the deck when she realized why it was so easy. Prince Zuko was waiting for her. "Looks like I underestimated you."

"Looks like," Said Anju, abruptly.

Zuko fall into a strange she recognizes, one of the more basic forms of bending. She dodged as the steaming flame shoot towards her, his arm was highly off as well. Did he really expect her to stay still? His stance fluster and she took her chanced and dived between his legs and, using the force of gravity, she rolled, fastening his legs around her ankles and flipped him with her. Never as she thought that a yelp could be so satisficing. She missed the frustrated look on his face as she dashed out of the ship and onto the deck.

No one was on deck, still searching within the ship for her but she already made her escape.

With her chains clinking, she tossed her glider and hipped off the side of the ship. Behind her someone shouted and the deck was soon filled with man. They gasped as she distanced herself from them. But in truth, it wasn't at her.

"Anju!"

Not expecting screams from ahead of her, Anju lost control of her glider and screeched as she collided into the furry head belonging to Appa. She swore in the forbidden tongue and grimaced, "Are you hurt?" hands reached down and pulled her up onto her bison's neck where Kamarua and Sukul sat.

Anju blinked as the siblings talked over each other;

"-Okay-"

"Yeah, clueless! I know. She thought-"

"-and then Gran Gran pulled out this map-"

"-can't believe you're the Avatar-"

"-still your fault-"

"Okay?"

They leaned over her in an obscure-manner, waiting for her response. She asked, in a soft voice, "What are you guys doing here?"

Sukul stared, "Did you don't hear me? I'm not letting you have all the glory-" she cried when her brother punched her, "and to save your hide. Which, as it turns out, was not necessary."

"Well thank you. But, I have a better question. How did you get Appa to fly? He only listens when you chant _yip-yip_."

To her amusement, Kamarua and Sukul shared an awkward look and made no comment as they blushed.

There was a scream from below them, and they looked down in time to see a flaming boulder being sent their way. The three teens watched in horror as it gains altitude. Anju jumped up, opening the end of her glider to create a large fan, and swung her staff, creating a gale that sends the fireball into a different direction. The boulder collided into the towering cliffs and exploded. Snow and ice rained down into the narrow channel Zuko's ship traveled. The recently made avalanche created a dam blocking the ship from exiting the waterway and encased the bow of the ship under tons of pounds of snow and ice.

They didn't wait around for the prince's outburst.

* * *

Kamarua was thrilled to learn that Anju was in fact the Avatar and that wasn't a misunderstanding and begin asking questions at a rapid pace. He did have doubts when she first revealed herself, he had thought she was only saying that in order to protect the tribe, but he was wrong. And he wasn't disappointed. Anju said something about taking them home, which was shot down immediately by both brother and sister. Sukul, who perched herself on Appa's head, glanced towards her in question and asked her first question sense their departure, "Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?"

Anju, who had been having a pleasant conversation about penguins with Kamarua, stiffen and turned, avoiding Sukul's eyes.

Kamarua frowned and looked at her, "Anju?"

There were so many reasons, she couldn't just pick one to give them and she didn't want to. The last few weeks of her life, back a thousand years ago, before she vanished, were less then pleasant. She was given two weeks noticed of her status to the world and her guardian had hugged her, praising her for her soon-to-be outstanding achievements. That was the day before she was given her precious fan on her fiftieth birthday followed by a warning and a crisped kiss on her cheek. And then it all shattered around her, a woman's long forsaken dream coming to an abrupt end as the monks stripped her of her leaving her to scream and cry, and run away just before her ceremony.

"Because I never wanted to be," she answered, leaving no room for augment.

" _Avatar? Avatar! Save the world, Anju! Love the world, Anju! Don't be a part of the world, Anju! Enjoy your life and travel and see new places and meet new people. Don't get attached through. How am I supposed to enjoy it when I can't even trust my own neighbors!"_

The siblings shared a look at the sober tone. Kamarua said, "The world's been waiting for the Avatar to return, and finally put an end to this war."

"And _how_ am I supposed to do that?" Nagged Anju.

Kamarua paused in thought, "According to legend, you must master water, then earth, then fire. Right?"

"That's what I was told. I've already begun my waterbending training, but I was just a few days into it before, well, before all this happened."

"Okay then." Sukul suggestive, "I can't believe I'm going to say this but why don't we just fly up to the North Pole and find a waterbending master to train you? Don't they have thousands?"

"Millions, actually. Unless that changed to… Kamarua… Kamarua! We can learn together."

Kamarua gave Anju a smile and turned towards his sister, who mumbled about magical water, "And Sukul, I'm sure you'll get to knock some firebender heads along the way." His sister didn't say anything but did give him a smug look of masked excitement.

"Then we're in this together," Kamarua proclaimed happily.

Anju paused in thought, "We can't just go straight to the North Pole."

"Why not?"

"I'm pretty sure Prince Zuko figured out I can't bend other elements, if I could, why didn't I escape through the water? Or create a storm or something? If he didn't notice, then I'm sure his uncle did. They're going to know that we're heading to the North Pole."

Sukul caught on, "We'll need to side track them then. Maybe loop around the Earth Kingdom a few times. But if we do that, then we'll need to be sight by the Fire Nation to keep them busy."

"Sorry to interrupt," Kamarua cut in, "But what are you talking about?"

"We're going to play a game of turkygoose-chase. But," said Anju, "We're the turkygoose."

"If we're going to play man-hunt, I think it'll be best for you to know, I'm not good with tactics or stealth."

Sukul waved her hand in dismissal, "No. It's not like man hunt. Think of it like a board game. We just need to make sure we don't loss- or in this case- can't capture. Maybe just flew over some ships or something. Just enough to catch them off guard."

"Or," Anju said, pulling out eh map the siblings had tucked away in her folds of blankets, "We can take care of some business." She pointed to several different locations, "Here, here, here, here, and here."

"What's there?" Sukul asked curiously. She didn't recognize many of the islands the Avatar pointed to.

"Here, we'll ride the hopping Ilamas. Then way over here, we'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish. Then back here, is Omshu. Then over here, we'll ride the hog monkeys. They don't like people riding them, but that's what makes it fun! Then back over there, is where some of the greatest Earthbenders are from," she smiled. One would think the detours were for nothing but enjoyment, but several of those places were important to her and there was no way the siblings would get her to change her mind.

Paling, Sukul said, "Maybe we should cut those back a tad-"

"Nope."

"Could I at least-"

"Nope."

"Seriously?" she hissed, "Fine then. At least let me decide the pattern of the routes." Anju seemed to think it over before handing her the map, "thank you." Sukul stared at the maps and traced island from island, she spoke under her breathe but neither Kamarua and Anju could hear her and weren't sure if they wanted to. Sukul was very quiet above what she was deciding before she said, "Okay then. We're going to do a standing wave pattern, which means we begin here."

She pointed to a crescent shaped island that extended in the back an arched R. Anju squealed, "That means the giant koi fish are first! Awesome pick!"

Kamarua laughed when his sister's face lost the rest of its color, "Why did I pick that one?"

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 **Words: 5388**

 **Views: 2354**

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 **Holy cow. I'm honestly surprised that this one went by so fast, I just started it maybe last Thursday and I'm already done. I've been editing to for three days to add time to see if I wanted to add anything but I love the way it is. This was the fastest but most detailed chapter I wrote yet.**

 **Now a few things about what Anju talked about in this chapter. One being the Naming Day and the ceremony.**

 _Naming Day:_ This idea actually came to me when I was reading a Darray (Draco x Harry) story where Harry's name really isn't his real name because his mother was actually adopted and blah blah blah. Anyway. So, I got thinking about the culture his mother came form in the fic and it sounded very similar to the Air Nomad form the Avatar series and I thought I would make sense in way to mix them. I'm not going to explain the Naming Day now because when Anju's past is revealed, the whole process and why it's there will be revealed, and why it is such a big deal. So, until them…

 _The ceremony:_ it's just as it seems. When the 'secret society' reveals who's the Avatar on their sixteen birthdays, there is a ritual performed later that day with a guru to showed how powerful the Avatar will be. Most avatar's ceremony doesn't seem like a big deal and hardly ever feel anything. This will play a major part in later chapters as Iroh never did the correct ritual.

* * *

 **Time to answer the reviews!**

 **RiverDownTheWay:** I love your reviews. They're always so detailed and have a lot of thought to them, so thank you so much for reviewing. Thank you. Usually you have praise for me, so it was really a shocker when the first thing you talked about was that the chapter was lacking but I'm glad you liked the interaction between the tribe and Sukul, that was my favorite part to write out of it all. And trust me when I saw this, more of Anju's pass is to come.

 **Guess:** Maybe Kamarua is getting a crush….

 **M:** You were looking forward to Zuko but he really wasn't a part of this chapter. I'm sorry! I did this for a reason though! He has a bigger scene for himself in the next chapter which I hope you really will like, I just need to get it to fit the way I want and I'm sure you'll love it. And I'm so glade you're enjoying the story and the little snippets I added in for them. Thank you so much for your reveiew!

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 **I hoped you guys enjoyed the chapter! Tell me what you think below!**

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 **Up next:**

The Tribal Girl and the Kyoshi Warrior


	8. AN: Continuing

**Author Note**

 **Look, I'm sorry about the long absents, I really didn't get a choice in the matter. Everything in my life just fall apart like crazy.**

 **In May, I broke my arm and had issues typing afterwards- who wouldn't- so I had to take a break for 7 weeks (not including the weeks it took for my muscles to get back to typing), so I literally could not type or write anything for over a month. But this wasn't the only thing that went wrong in the last four months for me.**

 **Not long after my arm healed I was bed rested with walking-pneumonia (nothing serious, I just don't get sick often and I slept for days). I've had walking-pneumonia before and it's not fun, especially with my serve breathing issues. My doctors had me watched 24/7 because the last time I had walking-pneumonia I had a seizure (which apparently shouldn't happen with walking-pneumonia).**

 **My dad and mom both last their jobs and we had to live off of my sister's paycheck for several months, and so I had to take a part time job as a nanny for my mom's friends who works night shifts at the hospital. So, I spent most of my days at someone else's house babysitting 2 months old to 11-year-old. It didn't suck, I loved those kids, but I wasn't going to use their internet or their computer for writing fanfiction.**

 **And I moved once again. Yep, again. In less than seven months. My mom is physically unable to put too much weight on her foot (not my story so I won't talk about it) so she couldn't lift anything, so this left me, my dad who has back issues and my sister to pack the house and pack the truck.**

 **I've literally only had three weeks to myself now, and I've been writing none stop since thin. But I haven't been 'mopping' around with this story. I've rewatched Avatar and Legend of Korra and watched several big movies (The Hunstmans, etc.). I noticed the changes I wanted that I hadn't originally thought of before, so I've been working on getting these changes to flow into the story. I've started doing more research on the world of Avatar and wrote down I wanted to keep and what I wanted to change.**

 **So, my absents did do something, it helped me figure out where I wanted to go with this story. So, now that I've finished this explanation, I'm going to talk about the things that've changed.**

 **Apperances have changed slightly.**

 **Sukul:** She is the oldest of the group and is the tallest out of Kamarua and Anju. She's darker then her brother. Her eyes are a darker shade of blue. Her is no longer short but long, reaching her hips. Her hair is kept loose with a layer pulled back into a longer-unspiked-version of the tribal Warrior Wolf Tail with a large brace separating the tail from the scalp. Also, she wear's her mother's necklace, not Kamarua.

 **Kamarua:** He's tall enough to just reach Sukul's eye level as he has yet to hit his growth spurt. His hair style is more like Sokka's with the side of his head shaved and the remainder is pulled back into a single braid reaching mid-back. He wears an artic LionWolf skin as a hood. He also has a scar that runs over his right eyebrow-which no hair grows no more. He no longer wear's his mother's necklace, but instead the whale tooth necklace Sukul wore in the first two chapters.

 **Anju:** She is mainly the same. She's several inches shorter then Kamarua, almost petite. She has dark blonde hair that is cut short, just above her shoulders with a layered pulled into bun with two thins strains framing her face bounded by beads (kinda of like Katara's loopies but when they're not attached to her braid). The front of her hair line in shaved lightly to reveal her arrow.

Zuko is the same.

 **Another thing to talk about. The pairings. I've had several requests to create a new dating poll with only two possibilities. AnjuxKamarua vs AnjuxZuko. The poll will continue to be open until the update of The Southern Air Temple, then and only then will the results be shown. And that pairing will be the canon pairing for this story.**

 **I plan on having the next chapter up by August 30. Until then.**

 **Also, a question to everyone: have any of you watched the pilot episode to the series? If so, did you think they shouldn't have changed the stuff they did? Or should they have kept it?**


	9. Chapter 9

**NEW ACCOUNT**

* * *

I'm jumping straight to the point.

I'm transferring my stories to my old account **, Phantom of Amity Park** , so feel free to go over to read my stories.

* * *

Let me explain something will quick. I have three accounts. One of which I can't get back into. When I had first joined FanFiction in 2013 I went by BlindingNight14 and posted god awful stories- they were terrible, looking back at it, you couldn't even read a paragraph without hurting your head. I used that account for two years before moving to Florida where my teachers' put me into advanced writing class because of my stories (even through my grammar is the worst thing ever). Because of this, I wanted to start a new account where I can start over with my stories. Not long after did I loss my password and my email password when I moved to Georgia.

So, I decided to create a new account, this one.

Recently, I started using my original account to post Danny Phantom stories just for fun since I still had lots on there. I deleted the old ones and started with a new story, forgetting about my other stories- I really am sorry about that- when I had a thought:

"Why don't I just move all my stories to the same place?

Which is what I'm doing.

By 1/30/18, all the stories on this page will be uploaded to **Phantom of Amity Park** chapter by chapter. No, I will not be deleting these stories, but I will be taking down the summaries to put where I find the stories.

I will only be posting stories I plan on continuing.

* * *

Stories from **Anju The Elemental Dreamer;**

 _Mother of Dragons_ (HTYD. Having issues)

 _Stranded_ (Jimmy Neutron. Rewritten. One-shot)

 _Turning the Tides_ (Avatar: The Last Airbender. In process. Having issues)

* * *

Remember, go to…

 **Phantom of Amity Park…**

On 1/30/18

 **This is just to make it easier on me. I hope you understand.**


	10. Chapter 10

Quick question for my readers

When I move this story to my other post do you want all the character to stay the same?

I mean as keep Kamarua Kamarua, Sukul Sukul, and Zuko Zuko. **(no matter what Anju is staying Anju).** I'm asking this because I'm interested in writing the story with a fem!Zuko but if I do that, I don't like the coupling with Anju, so I would have him/her with someone else as Anju was one of the pairings with him.

This is completely up to you guys. I'm okaying with writing both ways. With Zuko as Zuko and with Zuko as Zika. Completely up to you guys.

So here's the voting poll...You can vote on here on the actual poll.

Moving _Turning the Tides_ to my Phantom to Amity Park account. Should I...

1) Keep Zuko the same

2) Turn Zuko into a girl

3) Genderbend **everyone**


	11. STORY IS UP

Hey guys. I know I've been gone for a very long time, and I'm really sorry but I was having serve health issues for the last several months. I'm not going to go into detail about those issues, but I will say that I've been in and out of hospitals for a very long time and have been going to lung specialists for help. But no I'm on new medication and shots, and everything has been going great.

And now that I have more free time, I've gotten back to writing Turning the Tides! YES!

The story is now being uploaded to my new account, IntangibleRealities. The link will be on this account's profile, so feel free to use it to start reading this story again.

Thank you everyone for being patience. I hope you'll continue to enjoy this story like I do.

The story is up, under Turning the Tides by IntangibleRealities as of today.

9/4/18


End file.
